Star Wars: 10 Things Colin Trevorrow's Episode 9 Script Did Better Than The Rise Of Skywalker

What actually was the First Order?

The films seem to imply that, after rising from the ashes of the Empire, the First Order -- itself a rebellion against the New Republic -- gained enough momentum and cash until they could amass an army and wipe out the Republic's shiny new capital on Hosnian Prime.

While the title "Supreme Leader" suggests it was a political organisation as much as an army, audiences never see the extent of Order's grasp on the galaxy.

Duel Of The Fates seems as though it was ready to remedy this, fleshing out the origin and scope of the First Order. In Trevorrow's movie, audiences wlaould have learned that the Order essentially replaced the New Republic after the destruction of Hosnian Prime, landing their capital ship on Coruscant, while a graphic (but pretty cool-looking) public execution using a lightsaber-bladed guillotine would have demonstrated the Order's no-nonsense grip on its citizens.

In the doomed script, we even get more of a backstory for First Order poster-boy General Hux. Hux is revealed to be a Force-user wannabe who collects artefacts, including what seems to be Mace Windu's lightsaber, which he uses to commit suicide with when it becomes clear the First Order was about to lose the war.

The idea of collecting artefacts relevant to previous films would have nicely picked up similar themes introduced in The Force Awakens, while giving audiences an insight into the reality of the First Order would have made it into a tangible threat, rather than the shadowy-yet-ill-defined organisation that reappears in The Rise Of Skywalker.

Still not much Knights of Ren in this version, though.