The Rise of Skywalker’s “big character plot twist” ties back to A New Hope

With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker just a week away, just about everyone in the film is hyping up what’s to come. New footage keeps dropping (including one new clip to be debuted on Fortnight this Saturday and another hidden by Amazon somewhere on the internet), and the cast and crew keep offering hints. Considering how hard they’ve been hitting the interview trail, we can expect that to continue right up until December 20.

Take Richard E. Grant, who plays General Pryde, one of the new high-ranking officers in The First Order. Speaking to Cinema Blend, he teased that there’s a “big character plot twist” headed our way, something that surprised him and that will likely come as a shock viewers. “It made total emotional sense and story sense, and I thought that was really smart,” he said. “And I think that’s an incredible thing to take something that began with the first movie in 1977 and nine movies later reach a conclusion/resolution.”

Of course, Grant didn’t specify which character this major twists involves — though either Rey or Kylo Ren would probably be a safe bet. There’s plenty up in the air about Rey’s parentage — and about whether or not she’ll turn to the Dark Side — heading into the trilogy’s last film. And it’s certainly reasonable to assume her background could tie back into the original trilogy somehow, whatever we learned in The Last Jedi about her parents being nobodies. And we already know that Kylo is heavily influenced by characters from previous films, especially Darth Vader. Vader even talks to him, kind of, in the latest teaser:

Emperor Palpatine’s return could also be involved in this plot twist, as the villain’s inclusion in The Rise of Skywalker will need to connect back to the older films to make any sense. (And even then, they may need to jump through some hoops to explain how he’s alive… if he’s alive.)

We won’t know what Grant’s comments truly mean until the movie hits theaters next week. But regardless of what the big twist, it’s comforting that Grant, who was a Star Wars fan prior to landing a role in The Rise of Skywalker, is happy with the ending.

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