Let’s read through the full script of Colin Trevorrow’s Star Wars: Episode IX

For weeks now, ever since the theatrical release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, people have been talking about Colin Trevorrow’s scrapped script for his version of that movie, before The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams was brought back into the Star Wars fold to replace him at the helm. Trevorrow’s version of the film was called Star Wars: Duel of the Fates, and it was vastly different than the movie we saw. We’ve already seen concept art from Trevorrow’s movie, as well as an outline of what would have happened. Now, it looks like the full script is available to read online.

We say “looks like” because there’s no sure-fire way to authenticate this draft. But it does line up with a lot of leaked concept art and the outline, as we’ll show below. So let’s down a grain of salt and take a look at just how different Duel of the Fates was from The Rise of Skywalker.

First, the character development was vastly different in Trevorrow’s version of the film. For instance:

• Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) had way more to do in Duel of the Fates than she did in Rise of Skywalker. And while that’s not something difficult to achieve — she was barely in Rise — Rose was in just about every important moment from Duel.
• Rey has a double-bladed blue lightsaber made from the broken remnants of Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber, it having been destroyed in The Last Jedi during her Force struggle with Kylo Ren.
• Rey, who wears all black, doesn’t have any of the hesitation and doubt she displays in The Rise of Skywalker. “A grown woman. Powerful. Strong,” is how Trevorrow describes her. She also has nightmares of Kylo Ren due to their strong Force-bond.

• There’s a lot of sexual tension between Rey and Poe in this script; they even kiss at one point. The only thing holding them back is Luke’s voice telling her that Jedi should have no attachments.
• The Knights of Ren have a ton of stuff to do in the movie, and they even have names! There’s Hattaska Ren, who wields the Darksaber somehow. He’s “the leader, armored and caped in black.” Ott Ren and Lorl Ren “work as a duo.” And Jaedec Ren is “the rogue, his mask evoking an angry ghost.” Their ship is called the Knife 9.
• The Force-sensitive Broom Boy from The Last Jedi is alive and well. That means Rian Johnson’s Canto Bight sequence was not in vain.
• Hux is now a chancellor and is pure First Order evil, and is not a spy. He’s in charge of the First Order troops on Coruscant and lives a life of luxury with his own collection of Force-sensitive objects that includes a Jedi’s lightsaber in a glass case.

• When we first see Kylo Ren, he is on Mustafar (Vader’s planet). He’s in a ragged cloak and has a beard. He’s got a droid companion that stays with him throughout the script: VX-20. They actually go into Vader’s castle (seen in Rogue One). “A forgotten, decrepit cathedral. Crumbling. Pieces of structure litter the ground, untouched for decades.”
• At one point, Kylo Ren gets horribly injured and has to undergo painful surgery to repair what’s left, just like Anakin did when he became Darth Vader.
• Leia has all-grey hair and wears white robes. Oh yeah, and she lives all the way through the movie.

• Luke Skywalker is a Force Ghost, but he constantly talks to Kylo Ren, as well as to Leia and Rey. Mark Hamill would have had a lot more to do in this movie.
• Lando shows up in the final act to save the day, like in Rise.

• A new trooper called the Brutetrooper is introduced. They are mercenaries paid to go even farther with brutality than regular stormtroopers. They have chrome armor like Captain Phasma did.

The motivation behind our hero and our villain are different. Instead of searching for Emperor Palpatine, Kylo Ren and Rey are both searching for an ancient Force-sensitive planet called Mortis. That’s right, the extremely popular story arc from the animated series The Clone Wars plays a role in Duel of the Fates.

The over-arching story of the movie is wildly different, as well. Coruscant is a shell of its former self. No longer the pristine capital of the republic as seen in the prequel movies, it is now an oppressed planet ruled over by the First Order. A boy named Dade helps the downtrodden people there in the name of the Resistance.

Early in the movie, Rey, Poe, Finn, Rose and BB-8 steal a Dreadnaught class Star Destroyer called the Eclipse. This ship is massive, so massive that it can hold all the Resistance ships on it at once, while also holding an entire army full of First Order starships, walkers and weapons. The ragtag Resistance of The Last Jedi is no more. With the Eclipse as their flagship, they are a proper army.

The Old Republic is mentioned a ton in this script. There’s a beacon that can send a signal to the entire galaxy, calling friends of the Jedi to war. That beacon is located in the Jedi Temple — or what’s left of it — on Coruscant.

Force Ghost Luke continues to train Rey. She does training in a Jedi Dojo. There, she has a vision of Mortis at the same time as Kylo Ren, who is now on Coruscant and near death. Medical droids work to save him and he gets a new mask to cover his badly burned face.

Like in all the sequel films, Hux continues to plot against Kylo. He answers to a group of super-rich aliens who actually run the First Order. The way they are described, they could be the same group of elites from Canto Bight.

Kylo Ren searches for and finds an ancient Sith Master called Tor Valum. He sits among the remains of an ancient Jedi and Sith battle. Armor, weapons and skeletons are everywhere. “The mountain of junk MOVES. From it, as if disguised within, comes TOR VALUM, 7000-years-old, an alien of unknown origin. Spindly and tense, sinew and muscle pulled tight.”

When they meet, Kylo actually utters the name of “Darth Plagueis,” Palpatine’s former master. This is a HUGE NERD MOMENT for me. Apologies, allow me to regain my composure.

Anyway, Tor Valum raises a shade of Darth Vader for Kylo Ren to fight, which he does in a clear homage to the scene where Luke fights a vision of his father in The Empire Strikes Back.

Kylo loses and then angrily confronts his new master and kills him. That’s right, true to the Sith code, Kylo Ren kills yet another master. Also, Kylo learns to drain the lifeforce from beings to heal himself. It’s called “the light of the Living Force,” and it gets used in a pivotal moment in the end.

That’s different than in The Rise of Skywalker. In that film, Rey learns to use the Force to heal and Kylo senses she has grown stronger. In Duel of the Fates, Rey senses he’s growing stronger after he kills Tor Valum.

Anyway, on Coruscant, Finn and Rose ignite the Jedi Temple Kyber Crystal beacon that calls everyone to battle against evil. The light is shown traveling to distant star systems, calling for aid. And this leads us to the very exciting and very different second and third act of the script. I mean, it’s far more exciting than what happened in Rise, anyway.

• The beam from the temple touches planet after planet. We see familiar faces. Bossk, a Trandoshan bounty hunter from The Empire Strikes Back, briefly shows up.
• Kylo Ren stops the transmission from the temple from thousands of lightyears away by using the Force. Okay, then.
• Rose seemingly dies when a First Order trooper shoots her with a blaster, then falls into the rubble of the Temple.
• Rey is recognized everywhere she goes, so she has to hide her identity. But she’s too late and the Knights of Ren find her, so she takes them on by herself.

• Chewbacca and Poe eventually join the fight. Chewie grabs one of the Knights of Ren by the neck and throws him off a platform. Then he shoots him out of the air. Brutal.
• Rey isn’t some god-mode Jedi in Duel. The leader of the Knights lands a hit on her with the Darksaber. As he disarms her and raises his weapon to finish her off, she has a vision:

"Hattaska stands over her. Raises his darksaber for the kill. When he does, Rey gets a good look at his MASK…FORCEBACK TO: Dark figures in the rain. Voices SCREAMING. Lightning flashes, revealing HATTASKA REN.BACK TO: EXT. BONADAN DOCKING ARRAY – SUNSET This vision stirs a deep, vengeful ANGER in Rey. One she can’t yet explain but knows to be true. Hattaska brings his saber down…but she extends her good hand, teeth clenched, eyes burning. PURPLE FORCE LIGHTNING flows from her fingertips. Hattaska Ren’s skull flashes within his helmet as the electricity destroys him. The body falls, smoking."

Rey has just powered up with Force-lightning, a power usually reserved for Sith. She also knows she has to make Poe and Chewbacca leave because they aren’t Force-sensitive and therefore can’t go to Mortis, so she uses the Jedi Mind Trick to make them go. Rey kisses Poe goodbye.

Rey boards the Knife 9 and goes to Mortis, while Poe, Chewbacca and BB-8 go to Coruscant, where…Rose is alive! But she’s being tortured by Hux. There’s a funny moment where he tries to use the Force on her and she mocks him.

• Rey and Kylo arrive on Mortis, but on opposite sides of the planet.
• Dade helps Finn, who rallies the people of Coruscant to fight back against the First Order.

• First Order Stormtroopers see how the Brutetroopers are mercs who take things too far. They remember who Finn is and decide to revolt against the First Order. They now fight for the Resistance.

• On Mortis, Rey and Kylo meet and fight. She finds a vision in the Force that shows her that her parents weren’t “filthy junk traders” and they didn’t leave her on Jakku for drinking money. They were protecting her from Kylo Ren. Kylo killed Rey’s parents on Snoke’s orders.

The two then have an Obi-Wan vs Anakin-like Revenge of the Sith lightsaber duel:

"Lightsabers CLASH as Rey and Kylo fight mercilessly on the steps of the Temple. Ancient statues crumble–Rey stops them in midair, pushing them back.KYLO: “I could have been your teacher.”Rey loses ground. Doubts herself. Stumbles.KYLO (CONT’D): “I could have ended your pain.”Rey SLICES KYLO’S MASK, shearing the bottom right half clean off, revealing the flesh beneath.He REMOVES IT. Eye to eye now. She parries and ATTACKS.KYLO (CONT’D): “You’re weakening.”Kylo allows Rey’s barrage to hammer him, taking careful, controlled counter strikes through her wild assaults.KYLO (CONT’D): “The last glimmer of a dying light.”Kylo STRIKES–a wicked blow across her face that instantly cauterizes a scar from her left cheek to her forehead. Rey’s lightsaber drops to the stone. She falls to her knees and SCREAMS, CLUTCHING HER EYES. When she opens them, the world is an abstract blur of light. She’s BLINDED.Kylo stands over her, lightsaber pointed to her heart. Rey looks up. CRYING BLOOD. Rey falls backwards down the stone steps. Motionless.KYLO (CONT’D): “Goodbye, scavenger.” Kylo enters the Temple of Mortis, leaving Rey blind and bleeding on the steps."

This seems far darker than the kid-friendly fight the two have on top of the Death Star wreckage in The Rise of Skywalker.

Once inside the temple, Kylo has to face off against the ghost of Luke. I mean, it just never gets easier for him, does it? They battle and then Luke senses Rey isn’t dead. When he does, he tells Kylo Ren, “you are no Skywalker.”

"Luke VANISHES. Beyond him, REY STANDS TALL IN THE ARCHED DOORWAY. Blind, bruised, determined.REY: “Our Masters were wrong. I will not deny my anger. And I will not reject my love.”Her fallen lightsaber flies into her hands.REY (CONT’D): “I am the darkness. And I am the light.”KYLO: “You are nothing! You are no one!”She ignites the blades. They crackle.REY: “No one is no one.”Kylo CHARGES. Their blades meet and SIZZLE. Rey fights him BLINDFOLDED. Guided by the Force."

So Rey fights blindfolded. Yes! More of this, please!

"Kylo counters Rey’s every move. They are evenly matched, two sides of a coin, flame and shadow. Fighting to the death.A vicious swing and Kylo’s lightsaber SHATTERS at the hilt. DESTROYED, along with several fingers on his left hand, cut across the palm. He looks at it with disbelief, stumbles back toward the empty Well of Mortis. Falls to one knee. Rey stands over him. Anger flowing."

There is no forgiveness here, no serene peace that Jedi are supposed to feel at all times. Rey actually feels anger. And now I definitely feel like I know why Trevorrow didn’t get his script approved, because this is pretty far afield of the tone Disney probably wants to project:

"She separates her dual-lightsaber. Holds one blade pointed to Kylo’s chest. Kylo is stunned by the powerful being before him. She’s almost glowing. Unfathomable LIVING FORCE within. Kylo clenches his teeth…eyes furious… A rage like we haven’t seen since Anakin… He reaches out the open palm of his good hand… ….and EXTRACTS THE LIVING FORCE FROM REY as Tor Valum taught him.She RISES, energy flowing from her body into Kylo’s hand as the life DRAINS FROM HER. She pulls her blindfold off and SCREAMS TO THE SKY. Kylo stands tall. Energized. His face has RETURNED TO NORMAL. Healed. He pulls the iron plates off his skin–they fall away, healthy flesh underneath. He looks beyond Rey to the empty Well of Mortis."

So here’s where Rise and Duel meet: Leia senses her son is about to end Rey once and for all and she reaches out with the Force to stop him. So it’s a mother’s love that redeems Kylo Ren and turns him back into Ben Solo. Instead of letting Rey die, he gives her the lifeforce he stole from her. But it comes at a cost.

"Rey watches the light dim in his eyes. But it is the light.REY: “Goodbye Ben.”With a look that could be perceived as love, BEN SOLO DIES. Rey releases her hold. Collapses. Barely alive herself. They’ve fought to the death."

On Coruscant the stolen Resistance Star Destroyer comes into orbit. It’s refreshing to see Leia’s troops bring the fight to the First Order, for once.

• Poe takes the Falcon and tells Chewie to get his own ship and help. Chewbacca is forced to leave the Falcon and fly…an X-Wing. I actually hate this moment because the Falcon should be flown by Chewie and not Poe…but I’ll let my nerd-rage simmer and move past it.
• Threepio gets his hands dirty for once and actually kills a droid. He reaches in and yanks the poor little droid’s circuits out and it squeals in pain…or whatever a droid feels instead of pain.
• R2-D2 uses the moment to reroute a battery of surface-to-air guns and focuses them on the Brutetroopers fighting Finn and his stormtrooper pals.
• R2 takes a bad hit. Seems dead. But never fear, he gets saved in the end.

• Lando brings a ton of ships to help save the day.
• Hux realizes that “he lost the star wars.” He then finds his collector’s edition lightsaber and impales himself on it. It’s got a purple blade. Let’s put two and two together and remember the last time Mace Windu’s purple-bladed lightsaber was seen on Coruscant when the Emperor killed him. (Yes, the art shows a red blade, but in the script it’s purple).

• The Capitol of Coruscant turns out to be a massive ship. Once Hux is dead, the last leaders of the First Order try to use it to hyperjump away, but Rose re-worked the navicomputer to cause them to collide with a planet. They’re all Dead now. The war is won.

• After the war, Leia and Finn say they can no longer feel Rey, and they assume she’s dead.

And now, the end: On Mortis, Rey is dying until Luke, Yoda, and Obi-Wan appear to her. They tell her she has to train others, and then a bunch of light swirls around her. They take the shape of Jedi Masters who have become one with the Force before her. Rey lives.

Rose and Finn start a safe haven for Force-sensitive children, and it kind of seems like they start a family of their own. Finn tells the children the story of Star Wars. Also, Dade and Broom Boy are there!

"ON THE HORIZON Rey Solana. Her eyes are restored, only a faint scar runs across her forehead. The kids run toward her, joined by BB-8, who is faster.Rey walks on toward the homestead. Here she will train a new generation of Jedi and pass down what she has learned–that only an understanding of the balance within can lead to peace and justice in the galaxy."

And that’s the end.

I’ve got to say, Colin Trevorrow’s Duel of the Fates script — had he been able to fit all that awesomeness into a Disney-approved final offering — was far more enjoyable than The Rise of Skywalker.  I thought J.J. Abrams’ movie was too safe and too vanilla for the final film in the Skywalker Saga. Although keep in mind that this was probably a first draft.

Or, for another take on how things should have ended, check out this video about The Rise of Skywalker from…How It Should Have Ended:

What did you think of Trevorrow’s story compared to Abrams’? Let’s discuss.

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