With Star Wars: Episode IX still over a year away from release, it could be some time before Lucasfilm provides any actual footage from the upcoming trilogy-closer, leaving the internet vulnerable to whatever ideas the rumor mill is offering this week. This recent pair of allegations, for instance, are both at least partly concerned with Kylo Ren, and how he might be spending his final hours in the franchise.
On the one hand, a new report making the rounds teases the spectacle to come at the climax of J.J. Abrams’ next feature. It’s said that Adam Driver’s character will be witnessed sitting in a cockpit as he launches an attack on the Resistance base. What’s more, Driver will allegedly be joined by Richard E. Grant, Keri Russell, Billy Dee Williams and Daisy Ridley in a massive third act sequence that will see Rey slicing through stormtroopers in a sea of First Order and Resistance Fighters while Kylo watches from above. Lando, meanwhile, is said to be sitting in the Millennium Falcon, perhaps as part of a larger skirmish.
Accompanying that hearsay is the rumor that the Sequel Trilogy’s main villain will also be witnessed at one point brandishing a new crossguard lightsaber hilt, but with a green blade, suggesting a callback to Luke Skywalker’s weapon in Return of the Jedi.
Given the sheer volume of Episode IX-related rumors currently circulating, it’s hard to take any two allegations seriously without some form of evidence to back them up. But if these reports, are little more than one fan’s guesses, then they could at least be on the right track with their suggestions that next year’s release will contain a few nods to the Original Trilogy’s final entry, be it in a green saber or in Williams’ return to his old ship.
Seeing how overtly The Force Awakens paid tribute to A New Hope, it feels almost inevitable that Star Wars: Episode IX will contain definite echoes of Return, but we’ll find out just how Abrams intends to honor this franchise’s legacy when the film hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.