Why #ReleaseTheJJCut fan movement is here to stay
Fans have been asking Disney to release a director’s cut of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker since its release. Here’s why they won’t be stopping anytime soon.
Not long after the release of the final chapter in the Skywalker Saga, fans were clamoring for Disney to release director J.J. Abrams’s cut of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker thanks to rumors that the final cut of the film was not what the director had intended.
Originally, beginning as a thread on Reddit before picking up steam on other social media outlets, fans allege Abrams’s original cut of the film clocked in at nearly three hours and would have likely satisfied many people’s problems with what viewers ended up seeing.
It has been two months since the film’s release, but with The Rise of Skywalker soon to hit homes, fans are still agitated to the point that a petition demanding Disney “release the J.J. cut” is now circulating the Internet.
According to an article on CBR:
"The current petition for The Rise of Skywalker suggests that the cut scenes would include stronger LGBTQ+ representation, more cameos by stars of previous films and a more satisfying ending. While there is no way to verify these claims, as of this writing, over 6000 people have signed the petition, the stated goal of which is 7500 signatures."
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The article makes an important point –t here is no way to verify the claims of the #ReleaseTheJJCut contingent (along with the folks who were up in arms about Colin Trevorrow’s “leaked” original script for Episode IX).
Disney is such a tight machine that the same mechanisms that will keep fans from knowing the truth about production details on Star Wars films also keeps any part of production other than the final, polished product under lock and key.
It’s a shame Disney operates this way when George Lucas built his empire on a messy, imperfect tinkering that allowed fans to see his process over a course of decades. Thousands of fans are used to seeing and loving and arguing about all of the different versions and cuts of one scene within one Star Wars film.
And Disney+ would be the perfect way to leverage this special material in the new era of Star Wars. But sadly, Disney is unwilling to settle for anything that doesn’t fit their narrative of a one-shot perfect film, and so the rumor mills and fan petitions will keep on churning.
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