“Star Wars: Rise Of Skywalker” is out in the world and while it was likely a no-win scenario with fans, the backlash in some corners of fandom is very real (to be fair, like ‘Last Jedi,’ audiences appear to be split, critics hate it, fans seem to dig it, and the opposite was true on Rian Johnson’s film). Plenty of complaints about the film center on the erasure of elements from ‘The Last Jedi,’ and the way director J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio’s screenplay undoes so many of the critical points established in its predecessor (which could be an article unto itself, the list is rather long). One of those elements is the diminished role of Rose Tico, played by Kelly Marie Tran, a character that was loathed in the toxic fandom circles of “Star Wars,” to the point that Kelly Marie Tran was bullied off of social media and deleted most of her accounts, sick of the verbal abuse.
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Many have accused ‘Rise of Skywalker’ of cowardly course correction, i.e., appeasing all the haters of ‘Last Jedi,’ by removing and discarding all the elements of that film they disliked, Rose being a key one.
But to hear it from Academy Award-winning-screenwriter Chris Terrio (“Argo,” “Batman V. Superman”), that’s not the case and never the intention.
It’s no secret that all of the General Organa footage in the film is cobbled together from old, unused footage of Carrie Fisher from ‘The Force Awakens’ (some of it apparently already seen in deleted scenes). Well, some of that footage just wasn’t up to snuff, had to be cut, and that’s the reason why Rose’s role is so tiny in the film, according to Terrio.
“Well, first of all, J.J. and I adore Kelly Marie Tran,” Terrio said in an interview with Awards Daily. “One of the reasons that Rose has a few less scenes than we would like her to have has to do with the difficulty of using Carrie’s footage in the way we wanted to. We wanted Rose to be the anchor at the rebel base who was with Leia. We thought we couldn’t leave Leia at the base without any of the principals who we love, so Leia and Rose were working together.”
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Terrio continued, “As the process evolved, a few scenes we’d written with Rose and Leia turned out to not meet the standard of photorealism that we’d hoped for. Those scenes, unfortunately, fell out of the film. The last thing we were doing was deliberately trying to sideline Rose. We adore the character, and we adore Kelly – so much so that we anchored her with our favorite person in this galaxy, General Leia.”
This jibes with what Tran has already said, suggesting some of her scenes were left on the cutting room floor.
Now, to be fair, back to Terrio, while this may sound like an excuse to some, I just listened to the RoughCut podcast with ‘Rise of Skywalker’ editor Maryann Brando. In it, a fascinating listen, Brando talks—very carefully and somewhat protectively, maybe to not demystify it too much—about incorporating unused ‘The Force Awakens’ Carrie Fisher footage into this new movie. One of the things that she reveals which is interesting, is that some footage was taken from scenes shots inside, some outside and then had to be color-corrected and light-tricked into fitting into the specific sequence in ‘TROS’ where it was being used.
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It’s also pretty clear, if you watch ‘TROS’ closely, that sometimes it’s only the head of Carrie Fisher that’s taken from an old scene and thrown onto a new body (not always, but sometimes). Clearly, that’s difficult, and perhaps not all of it worked, and I would say Brando’s podcast interview at least suggests that too, at least some degree. Give it a listen.
Of course, that’s if you buy the storytelling argument/decision that Rose had to be left on the Resistance base with Leia, and couldn’t have come along on the adventure with the rest of the cast. Still, clearly, the critical decision to leave Rose off the primary mission was one that doomed her participation in the film regardless to any meaningful degree.
Anyhow, that’s Terrio’s reasoning or excuse if you see it that way—everything in “Star Wars” is, of course, depends on your vantage point. And or as Obi-Wan Kenobi says, “the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.”
“Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker” is in theaters now. The debate will obviously rage on for probably months.