A new report suggests that the upcoming Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker film will pay homage to the original Star Wars film now titled Star Wars: A New Hope in some way.
The report comes from Cosmic Book News, who suggests that this tie in with A New Hope will involve “Luke [Skywalker] or Darth Vader or maybe both.” They also suggest it could tie in with the Emperor.
Cosmic Book News is clear that the film will “tie into the Dark Side.”
While the report doesn’t give specifics on what the tie-in with A New Hope could be, Abrams successfully provided an homage to the film in A Force Awakens. He leveraged the idea of a Death Star and turned it into Starkiller Base. He also captured the feeling of Luke, Han, Chewie, and Leia attempting to flee the Deathstar, but this time it featured Finn, Rey, Han, and Chewie as they attempted to infiltrate Starkiller Base and shut it down. In fact, one of the criticisms of Force Awakens was that it felt almost too much like A New Hope.
My best guess as to what the scene could involve would be the Obi-Wan Kenobi vs Darth Vader fight scene on the Death Star from A New Hope. Something similar could be paid homage to with Luke and Kylo and help inspire Rey. In fact, a recent rumor suggested that Luke Skywalker would get in a duel with a Sith ghost. It’s possible Luke could end up dueling the Sith spirit of Darth Vader.
Hopefully hearkening back to A New Hope in The Rise of Skywalker can help course correct the Star Wars film franchise.
After the very public backlash against Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the onus has fallen on J.J. Abrams to fix a lot of the continuity issues and character arcs.
The inclusion of scenes or flashbacks to A New Hope could bring some much needed nostalgia and fun to a final installment that is do or die for the franchise.
What do you think of this news, Star Wars fans? Too little too late? Blatant fan service for a buck? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned.