Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker went a bit wild with death fake-outs, and one of the most scandalous ones was that of Chewbacca, which ended up ruining one of Rey’s most impressive Force powers. Following the acquisition of Lucasfilm by Disney, the Mouse House began working on a third and final trilogy of Star Wars movies with the purpose of closing the Skywalker saga, introducing new heroes and villains, and bringing new life to this already extensive universe.
The prequel trilogy explored the backstory of Anakin Skywalker, the original movies were all about Luke Skywalker and his training, and so the sequels covered a post-Empire time with new threats and a new and powerful Force-sensitive character that ended up becoming the last Jedi: Rey (Daisy Ridley). Sadly, the Star Wars sequel trilogy wasn’t consistent, and its final entry, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, was the messiest of all, but it also saw Rey displaying new (and potentially dangerous) powers, mostly because she was revealed to be Sheev Palpatine’s granddaughter and as such she had to have certain abilities, but one of her most impressive powers ended up causing and being ruined by one event: the fake death of Chewbacca.
When Rey, Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), C-3PO, and Chewbacca traveled to Pasaana while looking for the Sith Wayfinder, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and the First Order caught up with them, and while Rey stopped Kylo Ren, the First Order captured Chewbacca and took him with them. After being almost killed by Rey when she severed a wing of his TIE whisper with her lightsaber, Kylo Ren engaged in a duel of the Force with her, with each pulling the First Order transport to their side. This began as Rey thought Chewbacca was in that transport, and through her Force powers she pulled it towards her, but Kylo Ren wasn’t going to let that happen, so he began to pull the transport to his side. However, all this effort resulted in Rey unintentionally unleashing a burst of Force lightning, destroying the transport – but it later turned out that Chewbacca was in a different ship.
Of course, pulling a transport in mid-air towards the ground required a huge amount of power, and was proof of how strong Rey truly is, and the Force lightning that followed was the first time she displayed this power, which was also a hint of her real family background, as up to that point, Force lightning was the signature killing technique of her grandfather, Sheev Palpatine. However, this important display of Rey’s powers was overshadowed by the supposed death of Chewbacca, one of the most beloved and popular characters in the Star Wars saga and one of the few to appear in all Star Wars trilogies. The transport exploding and thus seemingly killing Chewbacca completely distracts from Rey’s incredible Force powers, and it’s only made worse by the fact that Chewbacca wasn’t on board that particular ship.
Chewbacca’s death fakeout was not only completely unnecessary but it also took the attention away from some of Rey’s most impressive Force powers, so Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (and Rey) would have benefited more from either having Chewbacca’s supposed death happen in different circumstances or, simply, not adding it at all, and just letting Rey show what she was capable of so the audience’s attention would be just on that.