20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker
9. It Borrowed ONE Major Idea From George Lucas
Though George Lucas' original ideas for a potential sequel trilogy were largely thrown out when Disney acquired Lucasfilm, one of his significant discarded concepts for the original trilogy did in fact make it into The Rise of Skywalker.
Near the end of the film during her climactic battle with Palpatine, Rey hears the voices of various departed Jedi - including Obi-Wan (as voiced by both Ewan McGregor and Alec Guinness), Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) - who give Rey the resolve to continue fighting.
The idea of having departed Jedi provide the hero with a morale boost came from Lucas' original script for Return of the Jedi almost 40 years prior, where the Force ghosts of Obi-Wan and Yoda (Frank Oz) showed up to shield Luke Skywalker from the Emperor's lightning attack and deflect it.
Lucas ultimately abandoned the idea, but the ditched scene ended up laying the groundwork for Rey's own Force assist at the end of this movie.