10 Star Wars Moments ONE Tweak Away From Perfection
7. Revealing That Chewbacca Was Legitimately Killed
Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker ultimately went down in history as one of the safest and blandest big-budget blockbusters of the last decade. But there was a moment there when it actually looked like J. J. Abrams and co. had delivered one of the boldest and most tragic shocks of the entire Skywalker Saga during the 2019 mess.
As Rey and Kylo Ren wrestle via the Force over a transport seemingly containing Chewbacca, the former accidentally unleashes a few destructive bolts of Force lightning, exploding the ship out of the air and inadvertently murdering everyone's favourite wookiee.
Right there and then, Rey realised just how dangerous her power could be, how close she was to the dark side, and the movie in general was gifted some actual stakes... for about 20 minutes
Said emotional demise was then swiftly undone as it soon became clear that Chewie wasn't on that transport at all, he was on another First Order ship and would eventually be rescued by our Resistance heroes after his apparent death.
Had J.J. Abrams and the gang had the guts to make Chewie's heartbreaking end a permanent and properly impactful one, though, then perhaps The Rise of Skywalker wouldn't have turned out to be an entirely uninspiring experience.