We all know that “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering” but the original draft of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ had a much angrier Rey when it was written. While the two were paired quite well together and had the right amount of give and take to keep audiences amused, new audio commentary from J.J. Abrams shows that Finn was initially much more open about his past while Rey was unaware of who Luke Skywalker is. Oh, and we have some sweet video with the scene where Rey went up against Kylo Ren that explains a bit more about her tapping into the Force.
Now, massive rewrites clearly occurred but that almost has to make you wonder how much of her story has changed through the film’s creation or if so many of our theories about her past and heritage are just dead wrong.
According to Abrams:
Originally, they were much more angry at each other, and truthfully it wasn’t working. Originally in this scene, Finn revealed that he was a stormtrooper. And in this scene, she had never heard of Luke Skywalker, which didn’t really make sense, because later, she’s heard of Han Solo, and she’s been wearing the Rebellion helmet, you just didn’t quite buy it. But the idea was that her life was so isolated, so sad, so without hope, that the most optimistic thing, that was Luke Skywalker himself, was nothing but a Myth. And the idea is that Finn brings this hope to her. Also this really fun concoction that Finn is lying to her, that his truth that he’s actually a stormtrooper is covered up by this lie that he’s with the Resistance. That allows for Daisy to sort of fall for this guy that’s this daring, brave, good man, but of course he’s lying. And she’s so lost in her own life that when she hears the name of Luke Skywalker here, she doesn’t even believe it’s real.
With how famous it would seem that Skywalker would have to be it really seems like a stretch that she wouldn’t have heard the name. Yes, she’s living in the middle of nowhere on a planet that doesn’t seem to be a heart of the Republic or Empire but that seems like something which would be public knowledge.
Thankfully, this isn’t something we have to worry about with how things changed.
On the flip side, we also have some great commentary about the pinnacle battle where Rey went up against Kylo Ren. The one scene in the film where she suddenly seems to be both a professional Force user and lightsaber fighter. While I did love how it played out on screen this is the one and only scene where she seemed to become too powerful too quickly. Even so, I loved every moment of it and can’t wait to see where she is after training with Skywalker in the next film!
You can check out the video here:
While I do appreciate that it is explained that this overly long moment was apparently more internal than external which allowed her to use the Force to save the day, it really felt while watching it that Kylo should be using it to attack.
Again, I did love it and am glad that they were able to put it in.
Are you interested in seeing more commentary from Abrams about ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’? Share your thoughts on what Abrams has shared so far below!
Sources: Cinema Blend, Comic Book Movie
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!
