The most recent footage from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker shows a number of classic spaceships from the George Lucas’ original trilogy.
Not only did the clip from D23 Expo feature original trilogy era Imperial Star Destroyers, but it also featured a number of ships used by the Rebellion. Those ships include B-Wings, Y-Wings, A-Wings, and a Corellian Corvette.
However, will these ships actually be used in space battles in The Rise of Skywalker or will they primarily be shuttles for troops? That’s the question YouTuber SC Reviews asks in his latest video.
SC Reviews notes the old school ships “would be interesting to talk about if The Last Jedi did not happen. You know space battles in Star Wars. But you can’t now after The Last Jedi.”
He explains:
“Because Rian Johnson signed off that film with a final space battle to end all future space battles in Star Wars with the Holdo maneuver. And notice how he saved that to the very end of the film. He was going to do that at the start of the film otherwise you couldn’t have any space battles.”
SC Reviews continues:
“But since it was at the end of the film, what have you got now? They have to give an explanation for why both sides aren’t going to use that in this final film. Or are we just going to overlook that are we? Pretend like it didn’t even in happen, don’t worry about, we are just going to continue on as normal. And what could be the explanation? I’ve got no idea how they are going to explain it.”
He goes on to add, “I don’t think they are going to explain it properly because I don’t think they can. And it’s very frustrating.”
He does suggest some possibilities they could do to make space battles make sense in Rise of the Skywalker:
“Is there some type of special shielding the ships have now. Do both sides have sort of the same technology to prevent it? Or do they both have different technologies?”
He adds, “Does Palpatine even know about this?”
https://youtu.be/lvJYXiqxWdE
The Holdo maneuver does effectively remove the concept of space battles which have been integral to the franchise and have been featured prominently. In fact, the first film started out with a space battle as Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer hunted down Princess Leia’s Corellian Corvette, the Tantive IV. It would also climax with an epic space battle as Luke Skywalker worked with the Rebellion to take down the Death Star.
One would think droids will now be used to suicide attack spaceships and easily eliminate your opponents. Droids were prominently used as part of the Separtists army during the Clone Wars. It’s not out of the possibility for these droids to be fully deployed by Kylo Ren’s First Order following The Last Jedi.
So will there actually be any space battles, and if there are any space battles will they have meaning since we’ve seen the Holdo maneuver?
Do you think they will introduce some new technology that will make the Holdo maneuver obsolete? Or will we see Resistance fighters using kamikaze attacks in order to take out what I can only imagine will be an overwhelming force of the First Order?