Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Surprising details that were cut

The Oracle on Mustafar

The Rise of Skywalker starts out with a bang. We see Kylo Ren raging through a sparse forest lit up in red, killing unknown civilians on his way to a mysterious object. Turns out what he’s after is a Sith Wayfinder that leads him to the planet Exegol and face-to-face with the resurrected and rotting Emperor Palpatine.

Well, after the film’s release we find out that planet is none other than Mustafar. What? Why couldn’t that have been made clear in the movie?

One thing that The Rise of Skywalker lacked and it was quite surprising, were ties to the previous movies. Being the culminating chapter of the story of the Skywalkers, many expected it to have many more cameos and mentions of past characters and planets in this film. Fans would’ve loved to have had this connection to Revenge of the Sith. Even if it would’ve shown Vader’s castle, we could’ve made the connection. Hell, it could’ve been mentioned in the opening scroll that he was on Mustafar.

It’s not just Mustafar though, there was originally more to this scene. Apparently, Darth Vader was going to have his Wayfinder guarded by some mysterious creature called the Oracle that was going to rise out of a pond.

In the novel, there is a conversation between the Oracle and Kylo and to have this strong connection to Darth Vader in this film would’ve been huge. It also would’ve been the closest Kylo Ren ever got to his idol and an encounter we would’ve relished. Cutting this scene from the film was a big missed opportunity by J.J. Abrams and a true head-scratcher.