Chris Terrio, the co-writer of ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker‘ has decided to open up about Force Ghosts in the final chapter of the Skywalker Saga. Now, it is no surprise if you’ve spent more than a moment online that Luke Skywalker would return as a Force Ghost, but were there any others that were considered? We’ll be diving into that in a moment, but there are some major spoilers ahead for the handful of you who have yet to see the film.
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So, we know that Mark Hamill came back as Luke for one last outing and at the very end of the movie, there was another Force Ghost that appeared. However, before that, there was a moment where Rey communicated with quite a few ex-Jedi which meant there were plenty of opportunities to bring certain characters back to the big screen. Why weren’t they? Terrio has answers!
“We absolutely discussed who would be there at the end. It’s not as though those Force ghosts will never appear to Rey now that she really is the first of the new Jedi. I think she has all of those Jedi behind her. J.J. was pretty clear about the idea that he didn’t want to take away from the moment of Leia finally appearing as a Force ghost and the twins finally being together. This might be in the novelization, but we talked a lot about how Leia lost her home. Alderaan is gone. So, she could never take Luke to see where she grew up as a princess, but Luke could’ve taken Leia to see where he grew up as a farmer. But the twins never got to Tatooine together. So, the idea of seeing the twins together after the sabers are laid to rest felt like it was something that was very moving to me and J.J.”
It makes sense that these two would want to give Rey a final farewell. Not only that, but it was a feel-good moment for audiences who were invested in Anakin’s children for decades.
As to why other Jedi were not in that scene:
“While you only see the twins in that moment, we thought that would give Leia more centrality, and you would really feel the strength of seeing Leia in the Jedi afterlife for the first time. Spiritually, it’s not a crazy idea that all the Jedi would be standing with them, but it might’ve been a bit of a visual shock to see all these new characters on Tatooine who weren’t part of the story of Leia, Luke and Rey. It’s a fair question from fans because it’s a question that we debated endlessly — about what the final shot of Force ghosts would be. We spent hours and hours talking about this and debating it, and we decided that the moment when the Jedi have to be there for Rey, when it dramatically counts, is when she hears their voices. So, seeing them all at the end would be a lovely grace note, but we thought that Rey seeing her two masters, two Skywalkers, was stronger. Rey was in the unique position of having been trained by two Skywalkers, which is what’s going on in the moment where she destroys the Emperor. It’s her, Luke and Leia standing together because she’s got the two Skywalker sabers in her hands.”
Did you feel that including Luke and Leia in the final scene of ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ was a satisfying moment or just fan service? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Source: THR
