After only a month in theaters, Colin Treverrow’s original draft for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, has been leaked onto the internet.
YouTuber and filmmaker Robert Meyer Burnett, a former story analyst, somehow got his hands on one of Colin Treverrow’s drafts for the original screenplay of what became The Rise of Skywalker.
He broke down the script and gave all the details and answers he could find inside for the viewer’s questions while also completely revealing all the story beats and differences between the films.
One of the largest differences is that Treverrow’s draft had the title of Episode 9 as Duel of the Fates, a bit of a callback to the score used for the lightsaber duel of Darth Maul vs Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Phantom Menace.
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This name would have been a great way to tie all three trilogies together, specifically the prequels, which is something sorely lacking in thesSequel trilogy under Disney’s reign. Most of the film had major ties to both the prequel trilogy and Star Wars: The Clone Wars as well.
All of the major reveals from the original Rise of Skywalker script:
- Rey is not sure of herself yet, is powerful but not on the level seen in The Rise of Skywalker
- Rey doesn’t have an important lineage
- Rey’s lightsaber is a mix between the Skywalker lightsaber and her staff, possibly double-bladed
- Rose is in at least 60% of the film
- C-3PO and R2-D2 are in almost the entire film, together with great banter
- Kylo Ren is searching for a power greater than any, that comes from the Force, ends up on Mustafar, he has shut off all interplanetary communication
- Most of the movie revolves around the planet Coruscant, the new capital of the First Order
- Several fights between the Knights of Ren and Rey
- The heroes are split up into two groups, Finn and Rose head to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant
- Poe and Rey travel to different planets trying to find Kylo Ren
- Kylo trains with a new master, a sort of dark-side Yoda figure called Tor Valum who has lived for 7000 years to train Sith, he trained Palpatine/Sidious
- Force Ghost Luke interacts with both Kylo and Rey, pushing them towards the Light Side
- Leia calls up Lando to get him to come to their aid with all the smugglers he can find, quite similar to the final battle in The Rise of Skywalker
- Kylo dies but doesn’t get redeemed
- The final duel between Rey and Kylo Ren takes place on Mortis, the planet from the Clone Wars where Anakin learns more about his role as The Chosen One, keeping balance in the force
One of the major takeaways from this script is that there is a definite reason for Colin Treverrow and Derek Connelly to get story credit for Episode 9 as there is a lot of its story beats in The Rise of Skywalker.
Holocrons switched out for the Wayfinder and smugglers switched out for all citizens of the galaxy. DotF script even included broom boy.
Whilst The Rise of Skywalker was an enjoyable film, it is always interesting to see what might have been.
What do you think of the changes made? Would you have liked to see Duel of the Fates? Let us know all your thoughts in the comments below!
