Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was almost an entirely different film at one point, with J.J. Abrams revamping the script when he came on board. Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow was taken off the project before Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, even came out, but he did finish the script for the version he intended to make.
Titled Duel of the Fates, his unnused script for Episode IX surfaced online later after RoS' release. One fan was so interested by Trevorrow's iteration, they took it upon themselves to make a 10-minute animated short film featuring some of the biggest changes from Rise of Skywalker. Produced by Mr. Sunday Movies on YouTube and animated by Ethan Taylor, the short but impressive animation shows what IX could have been.
"Before J.J. Abrams came on board for Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Colin Trevorrow was slated to direct his own version, Duel Of The Fates," reads the description. "Vastly different to the Episode 9 that we ended up with it included no Emperor Palpatine, his Master Tor Vallum (using concepts from a cut character from the JJ version) more Rose Tico and General Leia, a double sided lightsaber for Rey, Kylo Ren as the main protagonist and about the same amount of the Knights Of Ren we actually got."
The project summarizes the major story beats of Trevorrow's script, but some elements ultimately had to be cut out for the animation. "There’s also a Finn Stormtrooper uprising plot that unfortunately I cut due to time and money constraints," the description adds.
Watch the short film above.
