While the final theatrical version of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now available on home video, an animated incarnation of Colin Trevorrow's original plans for Episode IX, titled Duel of the Fates, has surfaced online.
Posted by Australian entertainment news site Mr. Sunday Movies, the animated short is narrated by the site's founder James Clement and recreates Trevorrow's script and concept art that leaked online shortly after The Rise of Skywalker's release.
Confirmed to be genuine by Trevorrow himself, Duel of Fates was a considerably different end to the Skywalker Saga than J.J. Abrams' The Rise of Skywalker, with the filmmaker completely rewriting Trevorrow's script with Chris Terrio following Trevorrow's departure from the project in September 2017.
The animated short pokes fun at maligned narrative decisions in The Rise of Skywalker, including the truncated screen time for Rose Tico. It also depicts a much different version of the Resistance's final battle against the First Order for the fate of the galaxy.
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.