While it may have felt like ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker‘ was in hyperspace skipping through the overall narrative, multiple scenes were actually added or completely reshaped in reshoots. Numerous rumors are floating that director J.J. Abrams was pushed to finish the theatrical release by Disney and Lucasfilm, and that is the end product felt rushed. Now, we’re learning that the overall narrative was continually evolving thanks to editors Maryann Brandon and who recently appeared on The Art of the Cut podcast.
“We added a couple of scenes. We had two weeks back in London in July, and we added a couple of scenes and added some dialogue that we felt we needed, and there were a couple of very small emotional moments that J.J. and I and Stefan decided would benefit the film, and we went back and got those.”
This is, of course, going to have “Star Wars” fans wondering which scenes went back to the drawing board. The franchise is one that is nitpicked to death, and every extra bit of information is something that will be taken to argue both sides of any argument about the series.
A couple of the scenes which the pair confirmed were reshot included Rey:
“The scene on the island with Luke, when Luke sees Rey. The film kind of informed us, after it was together, what it needed to say so we went back and got that dialogue. There was like a funny moment between Poe and Rey when he lands the Falcon, and it’s on fire, we wanted to have a more humorous exchange between them. Nothing major, no.”
It wasn’t made clear what was changed in the first scene, but as Brandon is describing them both as “nothing major,” I suspect it was primarily dialogue as well. The final scene, which was confirmed to be recreated, was also a scene involving Rey:
“We shot Rey’s introduction when she’s up in the air, and the rocks are spinning around her, because we wanted to introduce Leia and her. I had to go back and find good shots of Leia that we hadn’t used in [The Force Awakens], and we had those, and it kind of made us think, ‘Oh we could have this really fun scene to introduce Leia and Rey.’ So the film kind of informs you of things it might need.”
Brandon would later go on to share that this was the extent of the reshoots, which will likely put a bit of a damper on some of the Anti-Disney conspiracy theorists who are painting the movie as an incomplete story from corporate interference.
Are you at all surprised that only three scenes were reshot for ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’? Do you think that any of these three worked great, or are you wondering how they initially were crafted? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Collider
