The Rise of Skywalker General Star Wars Episode IX News/Speculation Thread - Part 1

[Manasrepublic]

Episode IX: Finn’s Rey of Poe

Episode IX: Is Rey Finned on Ben Swolo?

Episode IX: Rey Drinks Your Thala Siren’s Milkshake (guest appearance by DD Lewis)

 

[OtherwiseKnownAs]

Some concept art and reference photos have leaked on reddit. A lot of things match up with what MSW has reported.

 

[antsman41]

...so damn happy is mask is back.

 

[OtherwiseKnownAs]

I like the look of D-O.

 

[Aximili86]

Kinda thinking Smith & Russell actually might be Knights Of Ren after all.

These other MSW reports about a "threat from the Beyond" are pretty interesting. Sort of smelling a coup by the Knights here, having picked up that macguffin MSW was talking about, and p*ssed over Snoke's demise. That doesn't quite line up with them all in Vader armor and Kylo as their "master", always seemed to me they were more Ben's cronies than Snokes, but still.

Could sort of smell Smith maybe making a power play here, Russell too if she's one of them.

 

[OtherwiseKnownAs]

Spoiler

Well it sounds like whatever the MacGuffin is, both Rey and Ren are trying to get to it before the third party is. Whether that’s the Knights of Ren, or some “other” from the Beyond, I don’t know. The threat from “the Beyond” is super-interesting to me though.

 

[titansupes]

All looks cool, from the tiny thumbnails I've seen.

 

[Aximili86]

Spoiler

The threat from “the Beyond” is super-interesting to me though.

Spoiler

It'd explain where the Knights have been since TFA, off on some mission in the unknown regions looking for whatever-artifact/knowledge/kablahh. I sort of keep coming back to the supplementary books going back to around TFA, about Palpatine had sensed something out there, had the observatory on Jakku, had Gallius Rax protecting it, yadda yadda.

We're back on a sandy planet again for this, shot in Jordan (where Jedha was shot), but despite that reports seem to indicate it's Jakku rather than Jedha, just a different area of the planet and therefore difference landscape. Could see that maybe playing into things.

Also those weird alien attendant guys Snoke had that didn't make it into the movie but are in the art book and stuff, for TLJ. Can see through space and time yadda yadda, from out in the unknown regions, could be something to that perhaps.

Still having trouble squaring the Knights in general though. No sabers in TFA, and the expanded stuff having hinted that Kylo had hooked up with some criminal gang prior to being groomed by Snoke as his evil errand-boy. Those two things always struck me as them not being force users, but then Snoke's "master of the Knights of Ren" sort of made them sound impressive prior to mocking Ben on being unworthy. *Shrugs* Who the hell knows?

Really hoping they're not just Luke'students that left with Ben, as TLJ left a window open for, that'd be a little blahhh. I can't for the life of me figure why if they're NOT force users they'd try to usurp Ben though, everything so far makes it seem they're his lackeys rather than Snoke's. But guess you could find a way to reorient that, obviously a power play is easy to fathom if they indeed respected Snoke more than Ben and know/surmise Ben killed him.

The leaked concept pictures are pretty sweet though. Liking those new alien designs, Lando looks rad. Rey looks cool in the white outfit, and Poe looking a little more Han (plays into all those reports of this being a "western" and very Leone in look. Grant as a FO officer and Monaghan as a Resistance officer is a little predictable, but plays to their strengths.

Spoiler

With all those rumors of Hux going turncoat and aiding the Resistance against Ben - surely not out of benevolent reasons though, just a 'I'll work with the scum temporarily to wrangle power from this jackass" - could potentially be a cool conflict between Grant & Hux within the Order.

Wonder if there are more of those leaks coming, like another sheet with the rest of the characters? Kinda intriguing how little we've heard about some fairly-"name" actors like Smith & Russell, sort of makes me think they indeed might be this new threat, whether that's the Knights or something else.

Also, remember these red capital-style ships from the TFA concept art? We've heard multiple times they're re-using rejected concepts from TFA, I always just assumed that might be the "Warhammer" superweapon Leia's using against the FO (but given we've seen ship-ramming twice now, Rogue One and TLJ, that's seeming like the concept might have just evolved into those two scenes after-the-fact), but hey, maybe there's something to the other art pieces like these?

Not sure why the Knights would have big capital ships, and it'd be a little odd to introduce a big numerous army-type foe from the unknown in a third movie of all things, but lots of stuff to think about I guess.

 

[harlequinade]

Wheeeew I love new look for Poe!

 

[Gothamsknight]

That concept art is absolutely glorious!!! I love it! Great to see kylo with a hood again.

 

[Elayis]

Hopefully there's a reason for Kylo having the helmet again beyond JJ rearranging his toys back to the way he likes them. We haven't heard much about IX yet but so far I haven't seen anything that makes me think he's outgrown his tired fanboy nostalgia.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

This image once again corroborates what xyzsvtabc said on trash mountain (reddit) about some of the characters months ago after attending a marketing presentation (his spoilers for other Marvel movies ~8 months ago like for Spider-Man: Far From Home also came true).

Spoiler

"Episode 9: So plot info was pretty much non-existent here. They only mentioned that it takes place about a year after TLJ. They talked about the culmination of the movie being a battle between Rey and Kylo. The did show a ton or artwork of planets and characters. The said Kylo has his helmet back and that it has been put back together with some kind of red adhesive. It looked kinda cool with the red lines going through it. They also talked about Rey's lightsaber and how it's back and has been reforged. They said the reforge is not shown on screen. There's a new droid. It's name is Dio and it's sort of a sidekick to BB8. It's little and has sort of a cone shaped head, kind of like a megaphone shape if you can picture it. Beyond that it was just a lot of artwork and toy packaging. They mentioned various new planet terrains but the only one I remember was some kind of Jungle planet."

They use white for Leia and Padme's and Luke's depiction on expanded media a lot.

Rey was more Anakin (TPM) colored in The Force Awakens. She looks white or just slightly off-white costumed in this leak. Notice the wraps on her arms (same as previous movies) are noticeably darker than her outfit now.

 

[sueb1863]

Spoiler

With all those rumors of Hux going turncoat and aiding the Resistance against Ben - surely not out of benevolent reasons though, just a 'I'll work with the scum temporarily to wrangle power from this jackass" - could potentially be a cool conflict between Grant & Hux within the Order.

Hux just plain hates Ben's guts and will go with anyone who promises him sweet, sweet revenge. This completely jibes with Hux's self-serving character.

As for the 'power from beyond', I'm guessing that refers to whatever is in the bottomless well of evil on Ach-To. Even Luke seemed afraid of it.

 

[Gothamsknight]

I seriously need a trailer. Everything about this film so far sounds amazing!

 

[Snow Queen]

Galaxy's Edge spoilers (if you consider theme park specifics to be spoilers, seems to vary depending on where I go):

Spoiler

I'd be curious to see when they settled on Kylo's new look, given he's been regularly rumoured as an animatronic for the park, which sounds pretty likely to me. Was this decided upon years ago, or did they only start putting Kylo's materials together in late 2017 after Abrams came on board?

 

[Albright]

Episode IX: Just buy the damn toys

 

[Marvolo]

Maybe the Knights of Ren were corrupted by some dark side thing and they come back as demonic type Sith looking to take the First Order and galaxy from Kylo. Red dark side ghosts were something they considered for TLJ. One was going to be tormenting Luke, but it didnt make it past the concept stage.

 

[Aximili86]

Regarding Galaxy's Edge, it's been pretty heavily rumored that Batuu (the theme park planet) has something to do with IX, which would make sense. That grassy plains planet with the horses all decked out in costumes & greenscreen prep from the set pics, perhaps? The theme park's a town/city, sure, but guess that doesn't necessarily mean the movie takes place there alone, could get out into a more rural area of the planet too.

Either way, even if the red-bonding-lines Kylo is something Abrams brought along with him after replacing Trevorrow, I don't see why that'd be an issue. Late 2017 to now is plenty of time for them to adjust the theme park stuff, if they needed to adjust the Kylo stuff.

Seems like Galaxy's Edge has given us our first official look at IX too, that Resistance fleet popping out of hypserspace out that FO destroyer window apparently features new ships and stuff. Been a while since I've seen it though, details escape me.

As for a "demonic KoR", can't really see them going that way personally, but guess anything's a possibility. Given a lot of the MSW rumors were proven true with that leaked concept art (Resistance/Rebel troops with "wok" helmets, red-bonded Kylo repaired helmet, Lando in yellow and a cape, young Mon Cal etc), it definitely seems likely we're getting characterization & removed helmets for at least a couple of them though. Whether that's Smith & Russell, who knows. Would make sense though, casting names for those. Man, if Keri's actually a KoR though, it'd seem a little odd having her loyal/subservient to a young guy like Ben all this time though, if they're indeed force users. I almost prefer them not to be, but sounds like they will be of some kind. They all seem to have male builds in TFA too, but guess since we only see them for a split second it's a pretty easy overlook, no biggie.

 

[nightwing06]

The leak looks like what's going to be on the action figure packaging

 

[Mandon Knight]

...so damn happy is mask is back.

Same, awful idea to bin it in the last film. I get what they were 'saying' by doing that, but given the visual beauty of the whole look, was sad to see it go in last one, thank god JJ's go this, this time round.

 

[I Am The Knight]

You realize he spent the entire third act of Abrams' TFA without the mask, right? His most important scenes played out without the wannabe Vader mask.

 

[Mandon Knight]

You realize he spent the entire third act of Abrams' TFA without the mask, right? His most important scenes played out without the wannabe Vader mask.

I do (lol) but for me, it was the complete 'disregard' TLJ had for it that f**king annoyed the hell of the decision.

 

[godisawesome]

It’s not like him destroying the mask actually had any real relevance or dramatic power in TLJ. Snoke made fun of his cosplay outfit, he threw another hissy fit, then walked around looking like a much less cool villain in a less interesting costume for the entire film.

If he’s broken it when, say, Rey forced him to realize how Snoke had manipulated him, and destroying the mask was supposed to herald some genuine character growth and maturation into a real villain and *maybe* make people in the audience think he might switch sides, than it would have been good writing.

As it is... there’s a part of me thinking Abrams may end up having his cake and eating it too in terms of one-upping TLJ’s take on Kylo: have Kylo walk around looking more intimidating and cool for an entire film, than have someone re-break the mask in a way that carries actual storyline importance.

 

[henzINNIT]

Doing my best to avoid anything spoilery but it's tough. For some reason I'm much more curious this time around than I was for TLJ.

I will also be glad to see the mask back. They're just cooler than regular faces. It will be interesting to see how it factors into Kylo's development. I think ditching it in the last film was useful as it humanized him to an extent, enough for Rey to think he could be redeemed. Now that we've seen him double down on evil, lets make him scary again.

 

[Aximili86]

Of course destroying the mask had relevance in TLJ. The usual TLJ's-the-devil people always pull this crap. In TFA & the first half of TLJ he's playing into the family legacy, trying to live up to grandpa, yadda yadda. Snoke belittles him over it, insults him as this pathetic manchild, and Ben smashes it in this sort of "I'll show you, old man!" moment.

That doesn't mean there's no logical reason for it to come back here in IX. Snoke's gone, that element of his influence is done, he's become something else by now. Neither the guy he was in VII, the loyal errand-monkey, nor where he was psychologically through most of VIII.

Seems like it's sort of a patchwork of everything he's been up to this point. The conflicted child is gone, yes, but we don't know how long that "kill the past" stuff is even going to hold up. He clearly embraced his inner monster by the time Crait rolled around, he intended to just waste everyone, mom & uncle included. Snoke's no longer there to viciously mock him over the mask, and Ben still as all of that entitlement legacy thing going on, family ties, rightful heir, blah blah blah. Bringing back the Vader-tribute mask in evolved form seems pretty apt, and as Emperor/Supreme Leader/whatever title he's going to be using it does make sense in perpetuating that myth, the masked monster at the top of the cult pyrramid.