Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker should have been the crowning glory of Disney’s Sequel Trilogy, the film where all the mystery, suspense and character development of the previous two movies paid off. Instead, it was something of a disaster.
Sure, it made money, but it now has the ignominious honor of being the worst-reviewed Star Wars pic, as well as disappointing fans with its nonsensical story and multiple plot holes. It’s also put a big dent in Lucasfilm and Disney’s reputation as custodians of the franchise and raised questions about the future direction of Star Wars.
However, if I hadn’t seen the film and was just judging it by these newly released official images, I’d be almost certain it was great. These stills are the latest releases by Topps’ Star Wars Authentics. The site offers high-quality prints of just about every character in the franchise, with their latest batch showing off some previously unseen moments from The Rise of Skywalker, which you can check out below.
My favorite is the one of Kylo Ren piecing his helmet back together. I mean, sure it didn’t make much sense for him to do this as him destroying it was an important moment in his character arc, but at least it looks cool with the red cracks. I also like the image of Rey studying the Jedi Texts, as it would have been nice to see a little more of her Jedi training under Leia. Similarly, the image of Rey and Kylo Ren facing off on both Kijimi and Ren’s Star Destroyer at once was a cool idea for an action scene.
Neat as these images are though, they can’t help but fill me with a sense of regret that we missed out on a great movie. We’ll never know if Colin Trevorrow’s ‘Duel of the Fates’ would have been better, and we’ll probably never see the rumored director’s cut. Here’s hoping that the Star Wars franchise can bounce back in a big way the next time they tackle a trilogy. Maybe plan things out in advance for the next one?