“Star Wars” novelist Alan Dean Foster said he once wrote an “Episode IX” script that would have retconned several moments from “The Last Jedi,” which he called “a terrible film.”
What happened:
Foster, a “Star Wars” novelist, recently told Midnight’s Edge that he wrote a script treatment for “Star Wars: Episode IX” before it became “The Rise of Skywalker.”
- Foster said his script treatment attempted to erase the “silly things” in “The Last Jedi,” retconning some of the bigger moments.
- Disney did not look at his treatment, though. He said he simply wrote it for fans.
What did his script say?
Foster’s script treatment for Episode IX created an explanation for why Rey “suddenly has more Force powers than anybody” after her training, according to ComicBook.com. She said Rey had a disease that forced part of her brain to be replaced, which made her “part droid.”
- “That gives her the ability to learn remarkably quickly and also enhances her existing Force powers, and that’s how she can throw boulders around at the end of ‘Episode VIII,’” Foster said. “Also, it allows her to be instantly simpatico with other droids. I thought this would be a really fun story element, as well as explaining why and how she’s able to do these remarkable things.”
The script treatment also included a big battle on Coruscant with the Empire’s clones. It also gave Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) an increased role.
Lastly, the script gave Luke Skywalker a final sendoff, but a different one than in “The Last Jedi.”
- “At the end of the film, Luke is dying under a tree, and Rey comes out. And Luke’s last words are ‘Aunt Beru,’ which brings the whole thing full cycle.”
Episode IX scripts
The original director for Episode IX, Colin Trevorrow, wrote a script for the film that later leaked online, as I wrote about for the Deseret News. The script for the film — titled “Star Wars: Duel of the Fates” — leaked out shortly after “The Rise of Skywalker” was released.