The Original Conclusion to the Sequel Trilogy: Star Wars: Episode IX-Duel of the Fates

Courtesy of Lucasfilm

The Star Wars sequel trilogy was like a roller coaster full of ups and downs, with some fans loving some things about the movies and other fans hating others and the movies overall. Criticisms like how The Force Awakens was too similar to A New Hope and The Last Jedi ruining things caused a lot of changes to the direction of the series, in particular, the ninth movie. The final version, called The Rise of Skywalker, was directed by JJ Abrams, received mixed to negative reviews, and most fans see it as the worst Star Wars movie. Some of the criticisms were how Abrams spent half the movie undoing the changes The Last Jedi made, some characters like Finn and Hux handled poorly, Rey being a Palpatine, and how Emperor Palpatine was brought back as a last resort were common with both fans and critics. However, some fans may not realize that this was not the original vision of the conclusion of the sequel trilogy.

Episode IX was originally supposed to be directed by Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow, who also wrote the screenplay along with Derek Connolly. The original full title was Star Wars: Episode IX-Duel of the Fates, which was a homage to the iconic musical piece John Williams composed back in 1999 with Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace. Unlike The Rise of Skywalker, Duel of the Fates was described as a more faithful sequel to The Last Jedi. Around the time The Force Awakens was released, Trevorrow said he wanted prominent roles for Luke and Leia in his movie. The first script he wrote was completed on December 16, 2016, before Carrie Fisher passed away. Trevorrow also wanted to cover Rey’s official heritage.

Trevorrow wouldn’t stay on for much longer. In September 2017, it was announced he was leaving due to creative differences, particularly with Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy. It was an unfortunate common thing with Kennedy in having creative differences with directors and the directors leaving, like Phil Lord and Christopher Miller leaving Solo: A Star Wars Story. It’s rumored that when Carrie Fisher passed away, he wanted to make changes like having Luke survive after The Last Jedi and Leia be killed off instead, but Kennedy refused to do it, wanting to respect Rian Johnson’s final vision of his film. Another rumor was that because Trevorrow’s recent movie at the time, The Book of Henry, bombed at the box office and got negative reviews, Lucasfilm lost faith in Trevorrow. He would still get story credit for The Rise of Skywalker, along with Derek Connolly. Mark Hamill, who had been vocal about his disagreements with how Rian Johnson handled Luke Skywalker, said Colin Trevorrow understood Luke’s character.

In January 2020, Colin Trevorrow’s original script for Duel of the Fates was leaked online on Reddit. What was written was a completely different version from The Rise of Skywalker. For starters, Emperor Palpatine is not brought back, nor is Rey a Palpatine. General Hux, instead of having a forced plot of him being a spy just to see Kylo Ren lose, leads the First Order as Chancellor. The First Order is more powerful and cuts off communication from most planets. The planet Corusant would make an appearance for the first time since Revenge of the Sith, as Hux and the First Order would be ruling from there. Rose Tico, Finn, and the others would have more prominent roles going on missions to stop the First Order. Finn would lead a revolution on Corusant against the First Order, consisting of citizens, droids, and Stormtroopers who, like Finn, would leave the First Order. This would end with Hux taking his own life with an old lightsaber, rumored to be Mace Windu’s purple lightsaber from the prequel trilogy.

Luke Skywalker would have a more prominent role as a Force Ghost, continuing Rey’s training, confronting Kylo Ren, and sharing scenes with Leia. Kylo Ren takes a darker path than he did in The Rise of Skywalker and goes to Mustafar. Kylo would find a Sith Holocron with a message from Palpatine meant for Darth Vader if Luke had killed Palpatine to seek training from Darth Plagueis’s teacher, Tor Valum. The message would also explode in Ren’s face, causing more damage. He would find Valum and train with him, even face a phantom version of Darth Vader and lose to him. Kylo Ren would learn to absorb life energy and kill Valum. At one point, Kylo Ren would destroy Vader’s mask from The Force Awakens, considering him weak now and commenting how love clouded Vader’s judgment.

The Knights of Ren have a more prominent role and are not useless, even killing a First Order admiral for failing, and one of the knights would be killed by Rey using force lightning in one scene. Rey would have a double-bladed lightsaber that is a fusion of her staff and Luke’s lightsaber. She would still try to convince Kylo Ren to turn. Rey’s anger and struggle for balance between light and dark would be crucial. Leia’s role would have been bigger, leading the Resistance, recruiting Lando, and encouraging Rey to forge her own path. This, of course, was written before Carrie Fisher’s passing in December 2016.

The final battle would have Rey and Kylo Ren face one another. Rey would not reject the dark side, but instead balance it out with light to take on Kylo. Kylo would reveal that he killed Rey’s parents and blinded her. Rey would not be invincible despite these new powers and nearly dies until Leia gets through to her son. Kylo finally turns to the light and saves Rey, but dies himself in order to save her. The Force Ghosts of Luke, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Yoda would appear as well. Kylo Ren would reveal that Rey’s last name is Solana before he dies. The Resistance would celebrate, Finn and Rose would be together, having Force-sensitive children that Rey would train. Rey herself would train the new era of Jedi about the balance between light and darkness.

Star Wars: Episode IX-Duel of the Fates’ script and plot got positive feedback from fans. It seemed to pay tribute to all the previous movies from the prequels to the original trilogy. It seemed like more of a proper sequel to The Last Jedi and doesn’t undo the choices made in that movie. Characters that fans felt were wasted got better treatment and bigger roles. Some could argue a lot is happening in this script and even feels like fan service, but overall, fans liked what Trevorrow originally put together and consider it superior to what we got in The Rise of Skywalker. Actor John Boyega, who played Finn, criticized how the movies sidelined characters of color, which Duel of the Fates wouldn’t have done had it come out, since Finn and Rose, minority characters, were meant to have big roles. Boyega praised the original concept art of Duel of the Fates, but didn’t want to read the script, believing he would be heartbroken if he did learn about what could have been. The character Rey would not have a retconned backstory, and despite being powerful, would not have the Mary Sue/invincible labels she got from fans.

What do you think of the original Star Wars: Episode IX-Duel of the Fates? Do you think it would have been a proper conclusion to Star Wars? Would you have preferred to see it over The Rise of Skywalker? Let us know in the comments below.