Lucasfilm Sound Designer Matthew Wood was on a podcast today or yesterday where he said he went to Adam Driver’s house in New York and recorded new lines for Kylo in his closet, the same night as his interview with Seth Meyers. People seem to be speculating that this likely was to make Palpatine Rey’s grandfather. Some have speculated that the dyad angle had a stronger focus and was likely what Palpatine was after from the start, rather than being surprised by their connection.
Yeah I saw that. I think I might have even mentioned the possibility here shortly after I first saw the film. The more I think about it though, the less sure I am of it being a super late reshoot change. It was in all the leaks, which were out well before the final pickup and ADR sessions. Still, it’s no accident that Kylo has the mask for those crucial exposition scenes. Whether they knew Rey would be a Palpatine or not during principal photography, I think they wanted to leave that aspect open to change further down the line, one way or the other. Rey literally never once acknowledges that she’s a Palpatine. This is definitely on purpose, either they added it later, as we’ve speculated, or they wanted the option to get rid of it later, as hopefully we will now be able to do.
To stray topics a little, I was wanting to have a conversation about how to handle the conclusion of the political subplot of the film. At the end of the movie, we see First Order Star Destroyers inexplicably fall apart across the galaxy. It really just repeats ROTJ, where the Empire was seemingly defeated and everyone was celebrating across the galaxy (and look how that turned out). I’m wondering what people think might be the strongest approach to conclude this story.
Some seem to like the idea of emphasizing the cycle of war and resistance by showing the Resistance forces chasing down a Star Destroyer, as sort of a reversal of A New Hope, basically to say that whenever tyranny rises there will always be those who will rise to fight it.
Alternatively, I think it would be also interesting to see a unification or peace between the First Order and the Resistance, to signify that the Republic that broke apart in the Clone Wars is finally coming back together. There is some symbolism there of healing old wounds that I think can be found throughout the film. Any other ideas? Would like to know what you think. Most of these would be theoretically achieved through some new CG ship model shots rather than entirely new filmed footage.Also, just kind of wanting to gauge people’s interest in a fan edit where Ben Solo lives at then end of TROS. You can vote here to help give me a sense if people would like to see it.
I joked you were a very democratic fan editor before, nice to see you back it up in a literal way haha.
I voted yes, but for me it’s not a simple question to answer. I would have preferred he lived in the film, because I would have liked to see him have to live a life of atonement, not just because I didn’t want my favorite character to die. So I don’t mind his death, but the way it’s done, particularly with Leia, isn’t great, so in a way I would prefer that he survived. But ultimately which I prefer comes down to which can be more believably executed.