Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has been picked apart both by critics and fans since its release last month, with many taking issue with its accelerated editing, stilted dialogue and thin plot. Now, an alleged leaked draft of the script from film's original writers, Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly, has emerged online.
Trevorrow signed on to direct Episode IX in 2015 following the success of Jurassic World. But in 2017, Lucasfilm, Disney and Trevorrow "mutually" parted ways, with reports citing "script issues" and a soured working relationship between Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and Trevorrow to be the deciding factor. J.J Abrams, who directed The Force Awakens, was tapped to take over from him soon after. In a recent interview, Kennedy elaborated that Trevorrow hadn't been party to early discussions during The Force Awakens' development about where the story was headed, possibly contributing to his own ideas being too far away from what was originally envisioned.
While it's not perfect, the version of Trevorrow's script that has surfaced online does, surprisingly, sound a lot better than Abrams and Chris Terrio's story. Not only does it draw on many of the threads present in The Force Awakens but it also elaborates on The Last Jedi's critical look at the cycles of war and the nature of heroism.
It's important to note that while neither Disney nor Trevorrow have confirmed that the script is real, the A.V Club has independently verified its legitimacy from another source.
Titled Duel of the Fates, the draft opens with a crawl that explains the First Order has absolute power. We also find out that the reason why nobody answered Leia's call for help in The Last Jedi was that Kylo Ren had jammed all communications between systems.
The first scene is a heist, where Rose, BB-8, Poe, Finn and Rey try to infiltrate the manufacturing station of the First Order's space navy. Unfortunately, their plan is so predictable that the First Order is able to stop them easily. Rey, who had been disguised as a Tuscan Raider (a great callback both to A New Hope, the infiltration mission in Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi and her first appearance in The Force Awakens) unveils herself and shows her new double-bladed lightsaber, which she built from the remains of Anakin's and her own staff. With their combined efforts, the group escape.
Hux is now Chancellor on Coruscant, a role that suits his character arc much better than a random traitor, and he has a laser guillotine at his disposal. He and his war council are concerned about the location of their Supreme Chancellor, Kylo Ren.
On Mustafar, Kylo Ren, haggard and tired, has been looking for a MacGuffin that will make him more powerful than any Jedi, even Luke... while being hunted by Luke himself. Kylo's arc goes the Hamlet route, with him and Luke debating the advantages and disadvantages of surrendering to the Dark Side, and Kylo doubling down on his path. He eventually finds a Sith holocron of Palpatine that directs him to find Palpatine's teacher, Tor Valum, before exploding and burning Kylo's face.
Rey, on the other hand is struggling between not giving up on Kylo and being the "idea" Jedi she thinks everyone sees her as. Luke's ghost also appears to Rey, to train her, and she voices her objections. "The dark suffocates the light, light extinguishes the dark. Over and over and over again. How is that balance in the force?" Leia reassures her that the Force speaks to her and only she can change her destiny. A called The Seer is able to pull out memories of her encounters with Kylo and eventually finds a map to his location, while Rose, Finn, R2-D2 and C-3PO head to a Jedi Temple on Coruscant to blast through the communications blockade using pre-Imperial technology.
Kylo Ren, meanwhile, is facing Hux and accusing him of incompetence. Before leaving, he throws away Vader's mask, as his conversations with Luke convinced him that Vader lost everything because love was his weakness. Kylo heads to the planet Reminocre to be trained by Tor Valum, a Lovecraftian, tentacled, 7000-year-old Sith Master -- and what do you know? -- part of his training is to confront a vision of Darth Vader, the "loser" that felt love, who makes Kylo bite the dust.
Rey and Kylo Ren find each other in Mortis (yes, The Clone Wars' Mortis, a Force-liminal planet inhabited by three godlike creatures that represented different facets of the Force). Their duel includes sucking the Force from each other much like what the Emperor finally did in The Rise of Skywalker, at which point Kylo reveals that Snoke ordered him to kill Rey's parents (who are still nobodies). The Force ghosts of Yoda, Obi-Wan and Luke appear to Kylo and Rey, and eventually, Kylo falls and "extinguishes."
At the same time, Finn, Rose and the droids infiltrate the Jedi Temple in Coruscant and activate the beacon to contact their allies. Although the First Order captures and tortures Rose, she escapes just in the nick of time before Lando -- along with other smuggler types -- come to help of the Resistance. Leia passes the command of the air battle to Lando, while Finn organizes an uprising of the citizens of Coruscant.
Some interesting things to note about the leaked script is that it was written before The Last Jedi was released, which means that Trevorrow didn't hesitate to make Rose Tico -- who was the subject of horrible fan backlash -- a key player in the battle of Coruscant. It was also finished barely a week before Carrie Fisher passed, which means that even if Trevorrow and Disney had not parted ways, Leia's role would have been greatly reduced.
There's also no romantic conclusion to Rey and Kylo's relationship, nor any redemption for Kylo Ren, as there was in The Rise of Skywalker, which will either disappoint or appease different factions of the divided Star Wars fanbase.
Another highly divisive part of The Rise of Skywalker is Rey's lineage. While some have defended the Rey Palpatine reveal, Treverrow's story arguably doesn't undercut Rey's journey by having her belong to a powerful bloodline, thus making her more independently powerful as a heroine. The Wayfinder, for instance, an external device on The Rise of Skywalker, is replaced with her inner knowledge. It also leaves the Force a more democratic... well, force.
And while we are on the theme of relics, it's clear that Trevorrow dived deep into the Star Wars canon before setting his fingers to a keyboard; the script is peppered with references from different corners of the Expanded Universe. Trevorrow even updates the First Order, giving them the ability to learn from their mistakes, and makes a callback to the seedy warmongering alliances established by the Empire.
Perhaps most importantly, every character gets their due, drawing both from their personal arc and from the larger themes of the entire saga: Finn, who started as a defector, leads an uprising in Coruscant; Hux gets the job of his dreams as Interim Chancellor of the Galaxy and Rose steals a Star Destroyer, escaping the First Order for a second time. Leia's call is answered, and not because Lando had to phone her allies again, but because she reaches the political center of the Galaxy, where her mother thrived, and unlocks its power. And Poe learns to work with a woman, a lesson that he had only half-learned by the end of The Last Jedi.
Even Kylo Ren's arc, despite its depressing ending, has some fascinating, truly dark imagery. In his quest to become more powerful than Vader, than Luke, he burns his face, just like Anakin did. (The script also mentions that he fills his scars with Beskar, the Mandalorian alloy, turning his skin into an indestructible mask.) His confession that he killed Rey's parents comes out of nowhere but it fits into the classic destined enemies trope. Even the word that describes his final moments, "extinguished," is reminiscent of a flame fading than of a person dying, as if the fire that had tormented the Skywalkers had been finally put to rest.
In any case, it is fascinating to learn what could have been. Maybe one day the full story behind the production of The Rise of Skywalker will come to the light with more abandoned plotlines for fans to pore over.
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 now in theaters.