In just two weeks, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will finally be available on Digital HD. And to hype up the home release of the Skywalker saga finale, Lucasfilm has begun dropping key clips from the movie. A snippet of Rey and Kylo Ren’s battle against Palpatine is one of them, while another is the scene that establishes the villain’s redemption in the first place – Han Solo’s moving cameo from beyond the grave.
If you’ll remember, Kylo was distracted during his duel with Rey on the wreckage of the Death Star by Leia reaching out to him across the Force with her dying breath. Rey then delivered a severe blow and bested him. However, she decided to show him mercy and healed his wound with her abilities. This left Kylo in a moral quandary and the above, minute-long clip kicks off as the ghost of his father appears to him and helps him return to the light.
“I know what I have to do, but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it,” says Ren, quoting the words he said the last time he met Han (when he killed him). Han then reaches out and strokes his son’s face, promising that he does. Kylo raises his lightsaber, but stops as he goes to say he loves his father. “Dad…” he begins, before Han interrupts: “I know.” Which is obviously a callback to his iconic reply to Leia in The Empire Strikes Back.
Kylo then turns to throw his saber into the sea, representing him finally letting go of the Dark Side and becoming Ben Solo once more. When he’s done, Han’s presence is nowhere to be seen.
While we’re still a little confused over the exact nature of Han’s reappearance – though it doesn’t bother Harrison Ford – his cameo was one of the most moving moments of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, to be sure. We look forward to watching the scene again in its proper context then when Episode IX releases on digital on March 17th and then on Blu-Ray/DVD on March 31st.