Until a few weeks ago, we knew very little about Star Wars Episode IX. But then a trailer was released, the title The Rise of Skywalker was revealed, the return of Emperor Palpatine was confirmed, and we started getting a clearer idea of what this movie would be about.
It seems as though J.J. Abrams’ focus is on bringing the Skywalker saga to a close in a satisfying way, tying up all the loose ends and paying off all the big ambiguous moments from previous movies. Here are 10 Star Wars Moments That Could Pay Off In The Rise Of Skywalker.
The rise of Broom Boy
The end of The Last Jedi set up a hopeful future for the Star Wars saga – but we don’t know exactly what we’re placing our hope in. Who is this kid with the broom and how is it that he can use the Force?
We don’t even have a name for him yet, as he’s just been referred to as “Broom Boy.” Is he the first of a new generation of Jedi that Rey will lead into the future to restore peace to the galaxy? The Rise of Skywalker has a lot to answer for with regards to Broom Boy.
Luke’s dark flashback
The flashback to when Luke almost killed Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi felt weird and out-of-place. We don’t usually see flashbacks in Star Wars movies, and we don’t usually see Luke Skywalker trying to kill people – much less his nephew. So, it’s entirely possible that Luke’s flashback didn’t give us the whole story.
Kylo must’ve done something pretty horrible – pretty We Need to Talk About Kevin-esque – to break Luke Skywalker’s intrepid schoolboy spirit from the original trilogy. Maybe he killed all of Luke’s other students, or he killed Luke’s mother, or he brought Snoke to Luke’s Jedi training camp and almost got him killed.
Palpatine explains Darth Plagueis
Darth Plagueis is the fearsome, powerful, Thanos-style Star Wars villain whose shadow has loomed large over the saga. There have been plenty of stories about him in the Expanded Universe, but since Disney rebranded them “Star Wars Legends,” they’re no longer canon.
Still, George Lucas managed to slip in a reference to Plagueis in Episode III. Palpatine explains the Sith legend of Darth Plagueis to Anakin – he was a Sith Lord who was so wise and so powerful that he could use the Force to create life. If he’s out there somewhere, then we need to see this paid off.
Rey’s Force vision
In The Force Awakens, when Luke’s old lightsaber calls to her in Maz Kanata’s basement, Rey experiences a Force vision in which she hears a bunch of familiar voices, including Obi-Wan and Palpatine.
We see a flashback to her childhood in which a ship, presumably containing her parents, disappears into the sky and leaves her behind on Jakku. We see Kylo Ren alongside the other Knights of Ren. We see Luke’s robotic hand resting on the dome that is R2-D2’s head. If all of this J.J. Abrams mystique isn’t paid off in The Rise Of Skywalker, fans will be pretty miffed.
Kylo Ren kills Han Solo
It was a huge deal in The Force Awakens when Kylo Ren killed Han Solo, because Han has been integral to the Star Wars saga since the beginning and Kylo Ren is his son. But the fallout from Han’s death and the grief that people went through and how Leia responded to the tragedy of her son killing his own dad weren’t really explored in The Last Jedi.
In fact, the person who mourned the most was Rey, and she’d just met the guy. Han needs a more proper send-off in The Rise of Skywalker that isn’t just a nostalgic nod to the dice he keeps in the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit.
“We are the spark that will light the fire...”
The Resistance basically spent the whole of The Last Jedi getting their asses kicked before Luke Skywalker projected himself onto Crait to freak out Kylo Ren and buy them some time.
Poe Dameron famously said at one point in that movie that, while they might not be the ones to bring down the First Order, “We are the spark that will light the fire that will burn the First Order down.” So, let’s see that spark finally light an actual fire so that we can start seeing the good guys actually defeat the bad guys instead of just fleeing them.
Luke recognizes Rey on Ahch-To
Some fans were disappointed by the fact that Luke only shows up for two seconds at the end of The Force Awakens. They’d been hoping to see a lot more of him. However, in those final moments, there are still a lot of unanswered questions.
Primarily, why does Luke seem to recognize Rey? She shows up on his isolated little island and he doesn’t say, “Hey, who are you? How did you find me?” As though he either figured out her deal through a Force connection or recognized her from a previous meeting (like being her dad), he had a knowing look in his eye when she arrived.
Darth Vader throws the Emperor down a reactor core shaft
We thought we were done with Emperor Palpatine. He was shocking Luke with Force lightning and that snapped Darth Vader out of the Dark Side, so he tossed the Emperor down a reactor core shaft, ostensibly to kill him and end his reign. But then we heard him laughing in the trailer for The Rise of Skywalker.
Maybe he’s not so dead after all. Or if he is, maybe his soul traveled into a host body by the name of Snoke. Whatever it is, the last time we saw the Emperor, he definitely seemed to be dead. So, his return in The Rise of Skywalker needs to be worth it.
Anakin Skywalker becomes a Force ghost
In The Last Jedi, Yoda controversially returned as a Force ghost. The return of a dead Jedi in Force ghost form is not new in the Star Wars saga. Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Yoda (who somehow isn’t really mad at Anakin, because anger leads to...well, you know how it goes) join the Rebels in celebrating on Endor at the end of Return of the Jedi.
In an initial draft of Revenge of the Sith, Qui-Gon’s ghost appeared to Anakin as he slipped into the Dark Side of the Force. As long as The Rise of Skywalker is bringing back Palpatine, it might as well bring back the Force ghost of Anakin Skywalker, too.
Kylo Ren tells Rey her parents are dead paupers
In the throes of their climactic lightsaber battle in The Last Jedi, Kylo Ren tells Rey that her parents were nobodies who are now dead and buried in “a pauper’s grave” in the Jakku desert.
Either this was a lie or it’s leading to some grand revelation that gives us the full story, like Kylo Ren killed Rey’s parents or Rey killed them herself. Either way, we need some sort of revelation about Rey’s parentage and it can’t be that Kylo Ren was telling the truth and they are just a couple of wasters who are buried in the desert.
