Star Wars script leak shows missed opportunity in ‘Rise of Skywalker’

One of the most portentous suggestions in The Last Jedi, abandoned in The Rise of Skywalker, was Luke Skywalker’s hint that his Force Ghost would haunt Kylo Ren after death. Now it seems an early version of the Episode IX script explored this possibility in intriguing depth. 

The supposed script was co-written by Colin Trevorrow, Episode IX’s director before Lucasfilm cut him from the project in 2017 in favor of J.J. Abrams. It’s been blowing up the internet for a couple of days thanks to Reddit — but the source is veteran Hollywood filmmaker Robert Meyer Burnett, who claims to have seen the script and spent this two-hour video outlining its story in exhaustive detail. Crucially, Burnett shows a title page with a date for the Trevorrow draft — 12.16.16 — that tracks with what we know about the movie’s development. Meanwhile, the A.V. Club has another source confirming its veracity.

We should of course be wary of considering “Duel of the Fates,” as this script is titled, as an alternative to the movie we got, J.J. Abrams’ Rise of Skywalker. One is a first draft; one is final product. As Burnett notes, this would have been tweaked along the way, even had Trevorrow remained at the helm. Star Wars scripts, historically, tend to be fungible through post-production. There is not, and never will be, a “Trevorrow cut.” 

The Odd Force Couple

But there are good reasons to examine one particular plot point that never was. Because, alongside the abandoned Finn-Rose romance, it’s one of the biggest dangling threads left over from The Last Jedi that J.J. Abrams didn’t touch. (It may feel like Rise of Skywalker left a lot of Jedi dangling; in fact, it answers a surprising amount of the biggies, such as where Snoke came from and what the deal was with Rey’s “nobody” parents.)   

The line in question came during Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren’s high-voltage non-duel on the salt planet of Crait. Luke said he would haunt Ben Solo, aka Kylo Ren, if struck down — and that he would do so along with Ben’s father, Han Solo. 

This was no idle threat. It was delivered as a deliberate echo of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s pre-death warning to Darth Vader: “Strike me down and I will grow more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” We now know what Obi-Wan meant; he would return as one of the galaxy’s first Force Ghosts, mentoring Luke and leading him to Yoda. But what did Luke in his turn mean by this? 

In The Rise of Skywalker, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren does indeed have a conversation with a ghost or “memory” of his father. Luke, meanwhile, is seen in his old hangout on the porg-filled planet of Ahch-To. His purpose in the film is to tell Rey to continue the fight against Palpatine, to suggest he always knew about her heritage, and to introduce a previously unknown lightsaber owned by Leia, via a flashback sequence. 

It seemed odd to withhold Luke’s continued existence until two-thirds of the way through the movie, given that his voice appears in the trailers, and to give him so little to do when he does appear. If Obi-Wan appeared to Luke as a Force Ghost on Hoth at the beginning of Empire Strikes Back, there’s nothing to stop Luke from appearing anywhere in the galaxy — especially when there’s a Force-sensitive nephew he promised to haunt. 

A Force Ghost haunting of Kylo Ren would give us something new in our Star Wars. It would give Luke more to do in the saga that bears his name. It would “rhyme” with the previous appearance of Force Ghost mentors, to use one of George Lucas’ favorite verbs. Clearly Luke felt he and Ben had unfinished business. He felt he had failed as a teacher, and that Ben could be brought back to the light. For his part, Ben would be enraged by the constant reminder of the Jedi Master uncle he couldn’t defeat. 

We’ve seen Force Ghost mentors in this galaxy; we’ve never seen unwanted Force Ghost mentors. The potential for comedy, tragedy and a richer mythology is off the charts. Plus, if the viewer is expecting Luke hauntings, it would give the one final surprise Han haunting — the one that turns Ben back to the light — much more emotional impact. 

Perhaps most importantly, such a setup would give two incredibly complementary actors — volatile straight man Adam Driver and calm, confident jokester Mark Hamill — another golden opportunity to work together. Their odd-couple chemistry seemed a natural fit for the Skywalker Saga’s final episode. 

Evidently, Trevorrow agreed. Here’s what he planned, according to Burnett: Kylo Ren starts the movie in the darkest corners of Mustafar, as in Rise of Skywalker, searching for a Sith Holocron (library) rather than a “wayfinder.” Kylo isn’t personally slaughtering natives in a silent action sequence; he’s clearly gone AWOL from his Supreme Leadership, obsessed by the Dark Side. 

And instead of an army, he has Luke for company, says Burnett, quoting from page 20 of the script: 

Kylo Ren is being haunted by Luke’s Force ghost … Luke is saying things like “this is where the dark path leads: a tomb.” Kylo is arguing with Luke: “Where did your path lead? You’re a ghost.” Luke says, “I know what you’re searching for, Ben. Your master promised you strength and you feel hollow.” Luke is trying to convince him to go home to Leia; Kylo says “I’m going to be more powerful than any Jedi. Even you.” 

From that one taste, you can see how well this light side-dark side buddy comedy setup could work in a Star Wars context. It offers both a relief of tension and scads of mythology: a way to deliver the movie’s necessary exposition via its two most knowledgeable characters. 

And when we’re talking about the final film in the saga, the final great confrontation between Jedi and Sith, there’s a great deal that needs to be explained —as shown by the fact that we’re still scratching our heads about what exactly happened with “all the Jedi” vested in Rey and “all the Sith” vested in the form of Palpatine. 

In Trevorrow’s alleged script, the buddy comedy is interrupted by a hologram of Palpatine rather than a fully-fledged reanimated version of the former Emperor. Palpatine reveals that he himself had a master, even older and even greater, named Tor Valum; Kylo goes off in search of said master.  

Say what you like about whether introducing an even bigger bad at the last minute would be better than zombie Palpatine, but at least it would be more clearly explained. It would avert any need for a Rey Palpatine storyline and its attendant need to consider that Palpatine had sex. 

Plus a yet-greater Dark Side mentor would echo one central story lesson George Lucas tried to impart way back at the start of Episode I: There’s always a bigger fish.  

This script was not to be, of course; The Rise of Skywalker, billion-dollar movie that it now is, is the official ending to the saga. Other forms of Star Wars media are now rushing in to fill its plot holes, at least on the Kylo Ren front, which will thus one day not seem to the informed fan like plot holes. 

But before we consign this potential glimpse of Trevorrow script to the holocron of history, let’s at least pour one out for the Hamill-Driver buddy comedy we never got to see — and the fuller, richer, more emotionally resonant send-off Luke Skywalker deserved.