Currently, J.J. Abrams is the director and co-writer of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but we know that he wasn’t always the film’s first director or writer.
That glory went to Colin Trevorrow, who was initially the original writer long back in 2015.
He began the Star Wars 9 script with his recurring collaborator Derek Connolly over the following few years.
But in 2017, Trevorrow left the project because of creative differences. That’s when Abrams lined up and started rewriting the story. Abrams and Chris Terrio got the “screenplay by” credit, and Trevorrow and Connolly got the “story by” credit.
As Trevorrow was on Star Wars 9 for a long time, we knew that he had developed a minimum of one draft of a screenplay. This meant that somewhere out there was a substitute version of Episode IX. And now, the substantial plot beats of one of Trevorrow’s drafts are leaked online.
How Did The Star Wars Episode 9 Script Got Leaked?
The script leak pours out from YouTuber Robert Meyer Burnett. He posted a video yesterday allegedly breaking up the major story route of Trevorrow’s version of Star Wars 9. It is named Star Wars: Duel of the Fates.
Was Colin Trevorrow’s Star Wars 9 any different from J.J. Abrams’ version of the film?
The scripts are entirely different from each other.
Before we speculate more plot points, it’s essential to keep track of two things.
1. This script is seemingly dated December 2016, so there no uncertainty that there would have been new changes.
2. As we’ve seen repeatedly, crucial changes can occur to a script once cameras roll. So there’s no guarantee that if Trevorrow had stayed on Star Wars 9, this is what the story of the movie would have been. But this provides us an idea of what Trevorrow was working on for this specific story.
How Did Trevorrow Respond To The Leaked Star Wars Episode 9 Script?
A fan on Twitter asked if the Star Wars concept art, including Rey’s double-bladed lightsaber, as well as R2-D2 dying, was real.
Trevorrow said, “Yes, this is from Duel of the Fates,” but disclosed that R2 didn’t die here, even though the concept art appears to be pretty precise: “I’d never kill R2… he just took a bad hit. Happens to all of us.”
So, it is finally concrete. The title of the movie is Duel of the Fates. Palpatine’s message, Tor Valum, Kylo’s darker arc, is all true.
While that won’t alleviate with those who favored Trevorrow’s vision to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, fans can find some consolation in the concept of art that the director was mentioning too is now being accessible to look through.
The full gallery can be seen on Imgur – and contains a considerable look at some of the scenes defined in the duel of the Fates leak.
Rey’s culminating duel with Kylo Ren is there, as is Kylo’s lightsaber fight with the ghostly form of Darth Vader. In what would have been one incredibly crowd-pleasing moment, the Force Ghost of Luke Skywalker even grasps Kylo’s lightsaber mid-swing.
In conclusion, let’s wait to see what we get in the next Star War movie. Hopefully, it’ll be a blockbuster, chartbuster, and everything else that breaks the records.
