Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalkerhas already come and gone, notching acool billion dollarsand aterrible Rotten Tomatoes score, enraging certain sections of a fandom while delighting others along the way. In other words, it was aStar Warsmovie. And yet! Feelings of what-could-have-been still linger since the (very real!) unused draft of ousted directorColin Trevorrow’sStar Wars: Duel of the Fateshit the internet. Now, we’ve got visuals to go with the script, as a few pieces of concept art just popped up on image-hosting site Imgur. Sources with knowledge of Trevorrow’s planned film have confirmed the veracity of this concept artwork to Collider.
A lot of the art confirms the beats in Trevorrow’s script, like Rey (Daisy Ridley)—wearing an outfit with seriousReturn of the Jedivibes—wielding a double-sided lightsaber constructed from her staff, as well as training with the Force ghost of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) on the planet Koralev. There is also a glimpse at the planned lightsaber duel between Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Darth Vader that would’ve turned out to be a vision, plus artwork that apparently shows a fight between Kylo and Luke in which the elder Jedi stops a lightsaber blade with his hand.
The concept art also includes some of thewilderideas in Trevorrow’s draft, like a public execution of a resistance traitor using a “light blade guillotine” and the moment General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) commits lightsaber-assisted suicide. Again, almost everything in these pieces of concept art looks intriguing as hell, but there’s really no way of ever knowing how the finished product would have ended up. But still…the idea of a lightsaber guillotine execution is the most metal thing I’ve ever heard in my life and I can’t say I’m not alittledisappointed it never happened in a Disney movie.
UPDATE: Colin Trevorrow confirmed early Friday morning via Twitter that the concept art (seen below) is, in fact, fromDuel of the Fates.The director/writer addressed a fan’s question on the legitimacy of the concept art with a quippy affirmation, writing, “Yes, this is fromDuel of the Fates. But I’d never kill R2…he just took a bad hit. Happens to all of us.”
Check out all the artwork in the post below. For more on the future of the franchise, here is the latest onTaika Waititibeing eyed for a Star Wars directing job.
