Star Wars Episode IX: Duel Of The Fates - 10 Things We Learned From Colin Trevorrow's Leaked Script
8. It Acknowledges The Last Jedi, And Builds Upon Its Themes
Lucasfilm
Generally speaking, one other thing that Trevorrow's script had going for it was that it built upon the foundations laid by Rian Johnson in The Last Jedi.
While The Rise of Skywalker relegates Luke's sacrifice on Crait to a footnote during a conversation between Poe Dameron and Zorii Bliss, it governs the entire opening of Duel of the Fates. The First Order's extreme crackdown comes as a result of Luke's death inspiring a wave of uprisings, while Rey and Kylo's arcs over the course of the script speak more to the themes of Episode VIII, with both seemingly moving away from the dichotomy between Jedi and Sith.
It goes beyond that too, of course. The film delves once more into Rey's parentage but not in a way that directly contradicts The Last Jedi's most important revelation, while Luke's promise to Kylo at the end of the film is also delivered upon, among other, more exciting teases Johnson's sequel left unresolved.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
