More Concept Art From Trevorrow's Episode IX Has Surfaced
A short while ago several pieces of concept art from Trevorrow’s “Duel of the Fates” Episode IX appeared on the internet. And now even more concept art has surfaced and it offers a fascinating glimpse at the Star Wars movie that never was. Click through for some highlights and see what could have been…
Kylo Ren facing an ancient Sith temple
It is not known where exactly the concept art comes from, it just “appeared”. Chances are people close to the production of “Duel of the Fates” decided to give people a glimpse of what could have been.
Colin Trevorrow confirmed that the concept art is real and legit (after the first wave of images appeared). He also confirmed that even though R2-D2 was badly damaged he would have been fine again at the end of the movie.
And now some more concept art has surfaced. In my opinion it shows that Trevorrow’s Episode IX, “Duel of the Fates”, would have probably been a much more expensive movie, with various great looking locations and set pieces. Now, you always have to keep in mind that concept art is just that, “concept art”, it doesn’t necessarily mean these things would have appeared in the final movie, a lot of potential ideas get thrown around at the concept art stage. But still, it’s fascinating to see what they were thinking of. And some of the things you see here would have been in the final movie (according to the leaked script from a while ago).
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Early in the movie Rey, Poe and Finn would have infiltrated a First Order shipyard, their goal: to steal a Star Destroyer.
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Rey, Poe and Finn would have succeeded. The Eclipse Star Destroyer would have been captured and the shipyard destroyed / badly damaged.
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This was an idea for an all new Resistance Gunship, it resembles Republic Gunships without merely copying the design.
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Here you see a worker’s camp on Kuat (where the shipyard is located in orbit) with First Order Stormtroopers patrolling the camp.
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Leia with long silver hair on the new Resistance base on Korilev. Leia’s hair may indicate that some more time had passed in the movie.
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At one point in the movie Kylo Ren would have received a new helmet. According to Colin Trevorrow Kylo would only have been redeemed at the very end, when he’s dying after his defeat in the final duel with Rey.
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Rey is gazing at the Temple of Mortis in the far distance (you need to click on the image to make out the temple in the distance).
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The docking bay on the planet Bonadan. There would have been an encounter with the Knights of Ren on this planet. With Chewie grabbing a Knight of Ren, tossing him into the air and shooting him like a clay pigeon.
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The final duel between Rey and Kylo at the Temple of Mortis, high up on the peak of the mountain. Rey has much longer hair here, maybe one more piece of evidence that some more time would have passed between The Last Jedi and Duel of the Fates.
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Meanwhile there would have been civil unrest on Coruscant, here you see a street battle.
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Rey would have been gravely injured and she would have entered the astral plane where she encounters Yoda, Luke and Obi-Wan. It is here that Yoda reveals to Rey that to achieve true balance you have to embrace both the dark and the light side and that this is what previous Jedi failed at. Rey then gets to choose if she wants to stay in the astral plane or return to the land of the living, she chooses life.
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Presumed dead by Rey’s friends Poe and Chewie finally pick up her beacon. Rey is lifting the Millennium Falcom from the ice with her Force powers. In a previous scene, while trying to escape the Knights of Ren, Poe would have entered lightspeed and crashed the Falcon into the ice on the planet “Wavett”.
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And this is said to be the final shot of the movie. Rey arriving on Modesta, the location of the new Jedi school where she will train a new generation of Jedi.
And just like before, it’s difficult to say how well all of this would have translated onto the screen. Also, the concept art is from different stages of development, so not all of it is based on the same draft.
But I think the potential was there for a movie that at least offers a lot more eye candy. Gone are the desert planets, gone are the sparsely populated locations, instead there are orbital rings, planets with docking bays, Coruscant, of course, the Temple of Mortis, an all new Jedi school… And it’s also evident that in Trevorrow’s script there would have been “grey” Jedi. Now you may argue that this goes directly against Lucas’ words who said that to achieve true balance in the Force no dark side users can exist, because they warp and taint the Force. Thus, according to Lucas, there would have been no “grey” Jedi that embrace both the dark and the light.
My own personal feeling is that “Duel of the Fates” could have been a better, more cohesive movie than The Rise of Skywalker that better aligns with what came before, instead of trying to retcon certain things.
But all of the plans were made null and void when Carrie Fisher passed away. Allegedly Trevorrow insisted that The Last Jedi kills off Leia (which would have made sense), but Kathleen Kennedy declined that request and wanted to keep The Last Jedi as is (remember, Carrie died a year before the The Last Jedi was released, there would have been ample time to re-edit the movie) and eventually Trevorrow was removed from the project over “creative differences”.
So, after seeing all this concept art, including the new art shown here, what is your feeling? Would you have liked to see that movie?
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