New Star Wars 9 art shows what Colin Trevorrow's version of the film would have looked like. Details regarding the director's Star Wars 9, titled Duel of the Fates, made their way online earlier this month. As one might imagine, there are several key differences between Trevorrow's script and J.J. Abrams' The Rise of Skywalker, highlighting the rollercoaster this project went through during development. In the aftermath of the Duel of the Fates reveals, some viewers have argued it sounds like a better film than The Rise of Skywalker - especially in how it honors (rather than retcons) some divisive Last Jedi plot points. For example, Rose Tico had a much larger role in Duel of the Fates, and Rey remained a nobody.
Fans thought they got a glimpse of Duel of the Fates when pages from the upcoming Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker book leaked online, depicting imagery similar to scenes in Trevorrow's script. However, the director clarified none of the illustrations were from his time on the film. But now, it looks like some Duel of the Fates concept art has indeed appeared online.
A post on Imgur consists of 20 Star Wars 9 drawings that look to be concept art from Duel of the Fates. While that hasn't been confirmed as of yet, some of the signatures on the various pieces (including Doug Chiang and Christian Alzmann) are names of those who worked on the previous Star Wars films. Twitter account DR Movie News shared most of the images in a thread, which you can see below:
As interesting as it was to read about Trevorrow's Star Wars 9, fans will surely appreciate the opportunity to get a better idea of what the director was going for before he left the film. In particular, the Battle of Coruscant looked to be a fittingly epic and emotional finale for the saga, with the former Republic capital a shell of its former self under First Order occupation. The image of C-3PO and R2-D2 walking through abandoned Coruscant streets paints a stark contrast from the thriving metropolis audiences saw in the prequel trilogy. Another standout piece is the one of Kylo Ren's confrontation with his Darth Vader hallucination, which could have been a very compelling sequence considering the history between those two characters. It's also cool to see Rey's double-bladed lightsaber (crafted from the Skywalker saber hilt and her staff) in action as she takes on a new creature and duels Kylo one last time.
Much like the original script reveals, the concept art provides a fascinating look at what could have been. Obviously, there's no guarantee Duel of the Fates would have turned out to be a great film had Trevorrow remained onboard (his track record isn't exactly spotless), but it's still intriguing to see where he was planning on taking the sequel trilogy story. Trevorrow was fired from Star Wars 9 before a first draft of the script was completed, so it'll be curious to see if anything else regarding his departure is revealed in the coming months. Considering the mixed responses to The Rise of Skywalker, that's certainly a topic fans are interested in and would like to learn more about.
Source: Imgur (via DR Movie News)