One of the biggest things heading into The Rise of Skywalker was the return of Palpatine. The Sith Lord had been presumed dead ever since the end of Return of the Jedi. Yet, the figure was set to make his return as the big baddie to help round out the Skywalker saga. Now, thanks to the movie’s editor Maryann Brandon, we know that even more Palpatine footage didn’t make the cut, and it sounds like important information.
Warning: spoilers ahead for The Rise of Skywalker. Now that the movie has been in theaters for a couple of weeks, the filmmakers are making the rounds diving into more spoiler-heavy conversations. During a recent interview, Maryann Brandon, who edited the movie alongside director J.J. Abrams, explained that it was “tricky” when figuring out how to deal with Palpatine’s backstory. Here’s what she had to say.
“It was kind of a delicate balance and went back and forth a lot about how much we wanted to reveal. Some scenes changed quite a bit, the way that we wanted to present it to the audience. In the end, we ended up showing a lot less of it than we started with.”
Maryann Brandon also says there was “a little more information about it, what was keeping [Palpatine] alive,” but said, “it seemed to go off-topic.” The idea of Palpatine’s return was divisive even before Episode IX hit theaters. However, one of the big issues for many once it did arrive is that there was very little in the way of an official explanation. Jut that the Sith have “unnatural” ways that apparently allowed him to return. Speaking further, Maryann Brandon explained why they felt the need to cut the backstory out.
“There was so much information in the film and so many characters that we wanted to have an audience concentrate on. I think we felt we didn’t want to clutter the film up with things you didn’t need to know.”
There is indeed a lot going on in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Though, one would imagine even those who liked the movie would argue how Palpatine returned and how he was managing to stay alive is essential information. Not something we don’t need to know. Unfortunately, this information will probably end up coming out some other way, perhaps in the Star Wars novelizations or eventual comic book adaptations yet to come.
This does make one wonder what other information was left on the cutting room floor. With #ReleaseTheJJCut trending on Twitter earlier this week, we have to wonder, is there truly an “Abrams cut” out there? Rumors have been swirling recently about big changes made to the movie by Disney. We’ve heard they were editing right up until the end and things came down to the wire. Whatever the case, these Palpatine mysteries have answers that we’ll hopefully get sooner rather than later. This news comes to us via HuffPost.
