Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker co-writer Chris Terrio believes the creative team could have written a whole movie in between this film and Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi. This hypothetical film would detail Kylo Ren's reign as Supreme Leader of the First Order.
Terrio told IndieWire, "We probably could have written a whole movie that was just a lead up to Kylo Ren going to get the Wayfinders, Kylo Ren trying to take on a Henry the Fifth story, right?"
"[...] He [Kylo] had to sort of earn the throne. And now, how will he perform as Supreme Leader? ... At the beginning of the film, yes, he's out to destroy any threat to his power. He's searching for this legendary world that might be the source of the voice, but quite literally, the galaxy hears a broadcast, which is the voice of Palpatine, and then in the course of the first scene, we learn that Kylo Ren literally has heard in his head the same thing," Terrio added.
The new movie opened with Kylo searching for these Wayfinders so he could snuff out the rising threat of Emperor Palpatine. This return threatened Kylo Ren's thirst for absolute power. Terrio revealed this could have factored in as well as it was part of the Emperor's grand plan.
"If you look back at the scenes in 'Episode 7,' [The Force Awakens] where Kylo Ren is sort of fetishizing the [Darth Vader] mask and stuff, you think slightly differently about those on re-watch after learning that Palpatine has been every voice Kylo Ren has ever heard," the writer added, hinting this prelude would also have looked into how Palpatine survived Return of the Jedi and what inspired him to orchestrate the fall of Ben Solo.
Directed and co-written by J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Keri Russell, Anthony Daniels, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, and Carrie Fisher, with Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant. The film is in theaters now.