Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is just days away. Here are some things from Return of the Jedi that should be in the film.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker comes out this week. The final chapter in the story of Skywalker is upon us and fans around the world are losing their minds with excitement.
With this film being the final one, it should encompass the entire nine-film series. There needs to be mentions, nods, and callbacks to previous films. It does need to be a fine balance as no one wants to be bombarded with nostalgia and especially fan service that serves no purpose to the story this particular film is trying to tell.
Return of the Jedi was the original final chapter of the Star Wars saga. It showed the climactic redemption of Anakin Skywalker and the end of the Empire. Though time has viewed it as not one of the stronger chapters of the franchise, it holds a special place in a lof fans’ hearts not only for that final confrontation of good and evil, but for the Jabba the Hut scenes early in the film.
So here are four things from Return of the Jedi that should be in Episode IX.
Emperor Palpatine
Yes, we know Emperor Palpatine returns in The Rise of Skywalker. We heard his laugh in the teaser trailer and have heard plenty of dialogue from him in all the other trailers and TV spots that have come out since.
We even get a glimpse of his profile in what appears to be some sort of walking throne type of thing. The issue isn’t him being in the final film, it’s that we need to get a logical and sensible explanation to how or why he survived his fall down the Second Death Star’s reactor core.
Not only do we need to have a satisfying answer to that, but his ultimate plan also needs to make sense. In the most recent TV spot, there is a bit of a SPOILER so don’t continue to read if you are trying to avoid anything. There is a voiceover of him talking to Kylo Ren, saying that he has been every voice he’s ever heard in his head. So he is clearly behind the turn of Kylo Ren and it also makes one believe he was manipulating Snoke.
The return of Emperor Palpatine is one of the biggest elements of the final film of the Skywalker saga. While fans will love to see Ian McDiarmid once again chew up scenes as the hated Sith Lord, his return also has to feel real and definitely not forced.
Anakin’s force ghost
At the end of Return of the Jedi Anakin Skywalker comes back to the Light Side of the Force by saving his son Luke, and tossing the Emperor down the reactor core of the Second Death Star.
In that exchange, his suit is destroyed and he can no longer live without his breathing apparatus. Luke hauls his body off of the Second Death Star just before it blows up, and then burns his corpse in a pyre on the Forest Moon of Endor.
At the end of the film during the heroes’ celebration with the Ewoks, Luke steps away and gets a vision of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin as Force ghosts. Some of us still remember when Anakin’s ghost was his older version, but that has been replaced by Hayden Christensen’s Anakin due to George Lucas’ constant tweaking. That move may have opened the door for Anakin’s on-screen return.
It only makes sense for Anakin’s Force ghost to return in The Rise of Skywalker. He very well could be the Skywalker in the title and being the chosen one, it could be him who rises in the end to save the day.
Even if his role isn’t that vital, one has to think he’ll make an appearance. This movie is going to have callbacks to earlier films and characters from those films. Star Wars is basically Anakin’s story and he needs to have some role in the final chapter. As maligned as his original performance was, fans have recently softened on the Prequels and would go nuts if Hayden Christensen reprised his role as the Skywalker patriarch.
Ewoks
Ewoks were the Jar Jar Binks of Star Wars before that annoying amphibian ever stepped foot on a movie screen. They were cute little teddy bears that somehow, with their primitive weaponry and help from the Rebels, could defeat the almighty Empire.
While they were mostly unliked for not being very believable, they still are undeniably cute and time has softened many people’s opinions of these furry little forest creatures. In fact, many fans would be ecstatic to once again see them in a Star Wars film.
When it was shown that the Second Death Star would be making an appearance in the Rise of Skywalker many assumed it would be on the Forest Moon of Endor. The Death Star exploded above its atmosphere and it would make sense that some debris would land on the home moon of the Ewoks. Apparently though, the Rebels had some sort of shield that deflected the debris away, and the remains of the Second Death Star are actually on an oceanic moon called Kef Bir.
Hopefully, Kef Bir is the ocean moon of Endor. That would tie in nicely to Return of the Jedi and would also open the door for an Ewok return. It would make sense that the inhabitants of the various moons of Endor would interact and trade with each other. While the Ewoks don’t have the technology to travel planet to planet, the people of Kef Bir certainly could. In these trade interactions, relationships could be made and Ewoks could end up traveling off their moon to another one, even as far as making a new home on one of them. That could be how we see an Ewok in The Rise of Skywalker.
According to a recent making-of short, it did show a current day Warwick Davis trying on his Wicket costume. Whether that was for something else, or if everyone’s favorite Ewok is making a return remains to be seen, but it does seem very likely.
Speeder bikes
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- Domhnall Gleeson up for returning as General Hux
- Star Wars fan’s epic poster is The Rise of Skywalker ending reimagined
- Star Wars 25 features the first post-Rise of Skywalker canon story
The Star Wars saga is known for having all kinds of cool-looking vehicles and the speeder bikes in Return of the Jedi have to be near the top of the list. These are the bikes that the scout troopers of the Empire use on the forest moon of Endor. They zip through the forest narrowly avoiding the giant trees and crashing through the foliage.
Later Luke and Leia ride them as they toss off a couple of troopers and steal their bikes. A crazy Ewok also steals one later in the film, which he ultimately crashes into a tree but does provide a valuable distraction for the Rebels in the process.
The speeder bikes in Return of the Jedi are not only cool because of how fast they can go through basically any terrain, but they also have a nice look to them. They have a worn-looking brown metal frame with black handlebars. The front of the bike has two long cylindrical beams that extend out to the front fender that has the same brown metal. The fact that it looks like they have to be started with the foot as well as the handlebars, gives the bike a very motorcycle-like feeling. There wasn’t a kid alive in the early eighties who didn’t want one of these to cruise around his or her neighborhood.
It would be very easy to have one of these speeder bikes appear in The Rise of Skywalker. There could be one on the smugglers’ planet of Kijimi, in the chase on Pasana, or even in the final battle. It could just be a brief shot as one of the heroes could jump one to escape or chase someone down. It would be a nice nod to one of the sweetest looking vehicles to ever to be put on the big screen.