The Rise of Skywalker, "Expanded" (WIP)

Hi Everyone,

Jaden Korr (very original username… not) here. Been working on my own personal fan edit of episode IX for the past 3 years on and off. I was very inspired after seeing Hal’s ascendant cut and other people’s various edits that I was inspired to make my own. Most edits did alot of cutting (for reason I can understand) however I wanted to make an edit that was purely additive.

My goal of my own fan edit is to be as conservative as possible. I love episode IX for what it is and rationalized that the biggest flaw of the movie was that it wasn’t long enough. I’ve rationalized that all the decisions, concepts, principles, philosophy and spirit made in the movie are not necessarily contradictory, wrong, etc. (in my eyes/understanding at least) but the if there was more run time to allow the audience to digest things in the movie instead of going on a 200 mph non-stop ride, then it would be better digested (though if I were to pick the lesser of two evils, I’d rather choose overdrive than dragging forever).

Considering TROS has absolutely no deleted scenes to work with, there was lots of scavenging for TV spots, trailer footage, BTS shots, amazing work from other editors, and some of my editing put all together. Overall the runtime has been extended by approximately 4 and a half minutes.

I’ve added primarily alot of things that are present in the Ascendant fan edit and various other editors and a couple of my own such as:

• Added First Order Resurgent star destroyer fly by from Disney Vehicles & Biomes as the opening

• Added FO TIE fighters and Resurgent approaching Mustafar (From 21C Peasant)

• Added TLJ deleted scene of Kylo Ren looking from the bridge of the FO Star Destroyer

• Added multiple shots of FO TIE fighters flyby of Vader’s castle and troopers deploying from transports on Mustafar (From Ascendant)

• Extended FO TIE fighters arriving at the ice station by several frames from the trailer shot

• Added extended version of Rey’s vision (From Ascendant)

• Replaced scene of ancient texts displaying the healing ability (From Ascendant)

• Added a snippet of Palpatine’s broadcast to the galaxy (from Ascendant) during the resistance briefing.

• Incorporated AI lines of Poe explaining the dreadnoughts cannons (From Ascendant)

• Added Kylo’s vision (From Ascendant)

• Added the coruscant in the background of the FO star destroyer (From Ascendant)

• Added a BTS scene of Kylo Ren and Knights of Ren walking in the FO star destroyer

• Added the puppet show on Pasaana portraying Luke’s sacrifice and inspiration of hope to the galaxy (From Ascendant)

• Incorporated Sith Dagger whispering voices (From Ascendant)

• Replaced dialogue of Rey after healing the serpent, “From the ancient texts” (From Ascendant)

• Knights of Ren voices

• Extended Rey vs Kylo TIE from trailer shot

• Added extended shot of Oochi’s ship taking off (From Ascendant)

• Extended Kijimi arrival by several frames from the trailer

• Added D-O squeaky wheel scene (From Ascendant)

• Added arrival millennium falcon on Endor

• Extended Rey vs Kylo duel. Several shots had extra frames extended from the trailer.

• Incorporated Sherlock’s version of Leia reaching out to Kylo and Rey.

• Added a montage of scenes with Palpatine’s broadcast threatening the galaxy. Scenes taken from Galaxy’s edge promo, Mandalorian bounty puck, planet background shots, star destroyers approaching tatooine and yavin (From Skenara and MoviesRemastered)

• Leia’s lightsaber is colored purple throughout (From Ascendant)

• Extended camera pan of resistance briefing by several frames from trailer

• Re-ordered scenes of when lander drops Finn on the star destroyer command ship.

• Added a quick zoom in of Finn charging from BTS footage

• Extended shot of resistance charging down the command ship star destroyer, with the X-wing and B-wing fly by from the trailer

• Added a couple of BTS quick shots of the battle on the star destroyer, along with the resistance continuing their charge

• Added a quick shot from tv spot where Finn and Jannah are charging towards the nav tower (blink and you will miss it) right after when Poe mentions “Those thrusters are hot, how are we doing?”

• Added several shots of FO TIE pilots shooting down resistance fighters when Palpatine is giving his monologue to tempt Rey.

• Replaced Ben’s arrival with a TIE advanced though Im debating on replacing it with the shuttle (From Ascendant)

• Re-worked the Galaxy fleet arrival. This one gets its own “sub-section” because it’s where the most work was put in.

• Comm chatter of various pilots standing by throughout(From Ascendant)

• Rogue One Gillette commercial pilot

• Hera Syndulla inside Ghost ship rotoscoped onto passing New Republic Cruiser

• ROTJ Mon Cal pilot with scratches and dust removed, upscaled, color corrected, and to match with audio sync “Mon Calamari fleet standing by”

• Bo Katan cameo (footage from Mando S3), color corrected to exegol background. “This is the way”

• ROTJ Sullustan pilot with scratches and dust removed, upscaled, color corrected

• Mandalorian inside N1 starfighter. Rotoscoped a shot of Mando inside N1 starfighter with galaxy fleet arrive in background

• ROTJ Crix Madine footage inserted. This footage is cleaned. Face was aged using FaceApp to generate key frames for ebsynth to age the clip. Pretty rough but pleased with this first pass

• Mandalorian inside N1 starfighter, performing a spinning maneuver in cockpit in response to Poe calling to take out the star destroyer cannons

• FO TIE fighter cockpit shot with rotoscoped out of focus exegol background

• Action FX millennium falcon shooting down FO TIE fighters upscaled, and color corrected to match Exegol background. This scene is a falcon action scene to match before the Wedge cameo saying “nice flying Lando”

• inserted amazing ILM deleted scene of ships flying to attack Star destroyers. Upscaled and color corrected to match movie original footage (watermark removal segment is from Ascendant)

• ROTJ deleted Mon Cal pilot with dust and scratches removed to match dialogue of “Take out that cannon”

• A sequence of shots in the order: Side cockpit view of Bo Katan piloting Gauntlet fighter approaching star destroyer cannon, Boba Fett cockpit view rogering that, Outside ship shot of Mandalorian fighters with Slave I with resistance ships blasting a star destroyer cannon, Switch to Bo Katan’s POV blasting star destroyer cannon, to two mandalorian gauntlet fighters flying off from the imminent blowing up destroyer. ~8 seconds long

• Force ghost finale - incorporated both jonh’s version and ForceGhostLive’s version to create the longest possible extended force ghost finale.

• Celebration over coruscant and naboo (From ascendant)

• Added Ben Solo’s ghost visage with Luke and Leia (From ascendant)

• Millennium falcon taking off in the presence of the twin suns (From ascendant)

I probably missed a couple things, will update this post if I caught any I forgot.

This edit was made 4K HDR. I used the 4K HDR as a base. For new clips made by fans, I’ve upscaled it to 4K with Topaz video enhance AI, following I use Davinci resolve to change the color palette to Rec2020 ST2084 and then do to the best of my ability to color match it to the original source. I’ve been using the 4K HDR original as a reference point, to attempt to mimic the original color palette as closely as possible. A ton of effort was spent to make sure the upscaled footage somewhat matches the original 4K source and the color grading in HDR matches the original source to as seamless as possible blend in the with the original 4K footage. As a silly test, my wife, who has only seen the movie once in theaters, watched with me and didn’t notice anything sticking out like a sore thumb.

Welcome to any feedback. Let me know if the 4K or 1080p version is desired. May the force be with you, Always.

This sounds very similar to what I’m planning on doing with TROS- being as conservative as possible, as well as adhering to canon. I’m interested in how yours turns out

This is exactly what I have been looking for. Can’t wait to see!

Cheebo said:

This is exactly what I have been looking for. Can’t wait to see!

Which part exactly? Story wise or 4K HDR output wise? curious to know your thoughts!

Hello there! When I thought this project is dead and what not, and after 3 years I’m at a point where I’m satisfied with a first version that I would like to share. I’ve updated the OP with all the changes. Happy to share if anyone is interested. MTFBWY!