Anna Daniels
Specifically, Terrio revealed that the pair went back and forth about just who should be included in that final shot, as it seemed like the Force ghosts of Luke’s father Anakin (who temporarily brought balance to the Force by doing away with Emperor Palpatine at the conclusion of Return of the Jedi) and Leia’s son Ben (who sacrificed himself to save Rey during Rise of Skywalker‘s climax) should perhaps have been invited to that party as well.
Terrio justified the decision not to include them by indicating that there’s a time and a place for everything, and that it’s not like Anakin and Ben will be MIA forever as far as Rey is concerned; ultimately, he said that it simply didn’t make sense to include them in that specific moment.
“We absolutely discussed who would be there at the end. It’s not as though those Force ghosts will never appear to Rey now that she really is the first of the new Jedi,” he said. “I think she has all of those Jedi behind her. J.J. was pretty clear about the idea that he didn’t want to take away from the moment of Leia finally appearing as a Force ghost and the twins finally being together.”
Terrio also explained that the fact that Rey had come to Tatooine to bury Luke and Leia’s lightsabers made it feel appropriate that they, and only they, should appear to offer Rey their approval in that poignant final scene. “This might be in the novelization, but we talked a lot about how Leia lost her home. Alderaan is gone,” he said. “So, she could never take Luke to see where she grew up as a princess, but Luke could’ve taken Leia to see where he grew up as a farmer. But, the twins never got to [visit] Tatooine together. So, the idea of seeing the twins together after the sabers are laid to rest felt like it was something that was very moving to me and J.J.”
It was indeed an emotionally impactful ending to not only The Rise of Skywalker, but the entire Skywalker Saga — an ending that couldn’t have been pulled off without working some pretty serious movie magic with that unused footage. It’s almost as if the Force ghost of Fisher herself showed up to whisper in the ears of the filmmakers at a few key moments, and if it’s all the same to you, we’re going to go ahead and assume that this is exactly what happened.
Written by: Looper
