Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is just over two months away—and hype for the final blockbuster of Skywalker Saga is rising by the day. With this promising to bring the saga to a close in a satisfying way we’re expecting the likes of Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron to find themselves in all sorts of sticky situations, especially with Palpatine back in the fold after all these years.
The good news is that heroes, and villains,have managed to swerve dying just when it looks to be on the cards. We now take a look at 10 times where Star Wars characters were lucky to survive ahead of the release of the series’ final installment.
Darth Maul
Star Wars fans were excited when they got their first look of Darth Maul prior to the release of The Phantom Menace back in 1999. However, they were left devastated when he appeared to fall to his death after being sliced in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi during an epic showdown on Naboo.
Fortunately, though, the Sith Lord was so popular that George Lucas decided to revive the character. Maul survived, against all odds, by using the dark side of the force to keep himself alive before constructing robotic legs for himself to compensate for his loss of limbs. He would appear on the big screen again in 2018 as head of Crimson Dawn, the criminal syndicate who Han Solo’s former girlfriend, Qi’Ra, works for.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
In Attack of the Clones, after managing to survive their execution on the planet of Geonosis, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker join forces to pursue Sith Lord Count Dooku and try to bring the villain to justice for his crimes.
However, despite being older and supposedly far wiser than Anakin, Obi-Wan struggles when fighting against the former Jedi Master and is taken out of the battle when Dooku wounds him with his lightsaber. Dooku then appears primed to execute him but Anakin intervenes, blocking the villain’s red lightsaber and engaging him in battle instead.
Anakin Skywalker
Anakin Skywalker uses both his own green lightsaber and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s blue one to take the fight to Count Dooku during the same scene on Geonosis. But, just like his master, he’s unable to get anywhere near defeating the Sith Lord and has his hand chopped off to end his involvement in the battle.
Dooku then looks likely to drop a huge metallic structure on the young Jedi and master Obi-Wan but both are able to survive thanks to Yoda. The Jedi Master limps onto the battlefield, prevents the structure from crushing his two friends to death and is able to avoid more bloodshed on a day where many of his close associates were killed.
Yoda
In Revenge of the Sith, Yoda decides to succeed where Mace Windu failed by trying to kill Palpatine and prevent him from tightening his grip on the galaxy. The Jedi Master starts the fight well, sending the new Emperor tumbling with the force before both men withdraw their lightsabers and engage in combat.
Eventually, both Palpatine and Yoda lose their weapons with the former sending the small, green creature tumbling down the Senate. He’s lucky to survive the fall and also fortunate to avoid being found, with Stormtroopers arriving on the scene shortly afterwards. With no lightsaber, his discovery would have led to inevitable death.
Anakin Skywalker
If Anakin Skywalker thought losing his hand in Attack of the Clones was bad, things get a lot worse for him in Revenge of the Sith when he loses his battle with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar.
He believes he’s able to kill his old friend but misjudges his efforts and ends up losing both of his legs and another hand before becoming engulfed by the planet’s flames.
Han Solo
Han Solo’s crimes finally catch up with him in The Empire Strikes Back when Darth Vader secures his imprisonment and offloads him to Boba Fett in order for him to be delivered to Jabba the Hutt. Knowing he won’t come quietly, the Empire encase the galaxy’s favorite smuggler in carbonite - which is risky business.
Fett expresses concern beforehand, knowing he won’t get the same big payout should he fail to deliver Solo alive. Fortunately, he survives the ordeal and would later be rescued by Luke Skywalker from Jabba’s palace on Tatooine in Return of the Jedi.
Luke Skywalker
Despite being warned against taking on Darth Vader by both Yoda and Obi-wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker travels to Cloud City during The Empire Strikes Back in order to save his friends from a horrible fate. Once there, he engages Vader in lightsaber combat and finds himself playing second fiddle to the Sith Lord.
Vader eventually wins their battle, chopping off Luke’s hand and revealing himself to be the Jedi Knight’s father. But, rather than join forces, young Skywalker decides to allow himself to fall from a great height. He looks certain to die but Leia, using the force, is able to track his location and rescue him in the Millennium Falcon.
Finn
Finn starts off The Force Awakens as somebody consumed by fear. When working for the First Order as a stormtrooper, he refuses to take part in the slaughter of Jakku residents. And later on in the same blockbuster, he ponders deserting the Resistance while on Takodana.
But, by the end of the blockbuster, he’s full of courage and dares to confront Kylo Ren on Starkiller Base. He gives it a real good go, too, managing to even wound the villain. However, he’s clearly in way over his head and is eventually defeated with Kylo inflicting a horrible wound on the former Stormtrooper’s back. If it wasn’t for Rey, Ben Solo would no doubt have killed him.
Kylo Ren
After defeating Finn, Kylo Ren finds himself pitted against Rey who, to make matters worse, is able to beat him to Luke Skywalker’s old blue lightsaber. The duo then face off but, despite being vastly inexperienced, it’s Rey who reigns supreme by managing to damage her opponent’s lightsaber being slicing up his face.
Rey ponders murdering Kylo - the official novelization explains this - but the choice is taken out of her hands when the land they’re standing on splits in two. This means they’re separated and Ben Solo is able to get off Starkiller Base before it’s obliterated by the Resistance and Poe Dameron.
Leia Organa
Whether or not you like the scene, the moment where Leia Organa uses the force to save herself from dying in outer space in The Last Jedi is the final entry on this list.
She looks on course to perish after two First Order TIE fighters attack her ship, despite Kylo Ren refusing to pull the trigger himself. We see Leia sucked into space but she uses the force to guide herself back to the ship, where Poe Dameron and Finn are able to help her. It’s a key moment for the character who, previously, had only been seen using the force in very small ways.