The final Star Wars film, The Rise of Skywalker, may have been controversial, but you can’t deny that it changed the entire saga in so many ways. Releasing in 2019, The Rise of Skywalker is the final film in the sequel trilogy, depicting the events surrounding the return of Emperor Palpatine, and the Resistance’s desperate battle against him. The film takes us all across the Star Wars galaxy, leading to a lot of new lore developments that have had lasting consequences.
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The Rise of Skywalker brought together a lot of interesting loose ends, while also posing many questions of its own that were only answered (or are still being answered) in later Star Wars stories. This list will compile the most influential aspects of Episode IX, ranging from character details, to galaxy-shaking revelations. Like it or not, The Rise of Skywalker has changed Star Wars forever in some very interesting ways.
9 Kijimi & The Spice Runners
The Ice Planet & Its Crime Syndicate
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One of the biggest impacts The Rise of Skywalker has had is the planet Kijimi. The icy Mid Rim world is where Rey & Kylo Ren duel, and is the location of the iconic Babu Frik’s droid workshop. Since its appearance in the film, Kijimi has appeared rather significantly in the recent Star Wars: Outlaws, where it’s a playable area with a significant amount of world building. This includes the complicated crime syndicate, the Spice Runners Of Kijimi.
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The Spice Runners appear only minimally in the film, but they’ve played a big role in other media released since 2019. While Outlaws doesn’t feature the Spice Runners directly, they are mentioned, and have most recently played a key role in the post-Endor comic series Battle of Jakku written by Alex Segura. The story of Poe Dameron joining the Spice Runners and meeting Zorii Bliss was also told in the novel Poe Dameron: Free Fall, also by Segura, which established them as one of the biggest and most important crime syndicates in the New Republic era.
8 Lando Calrissian’s Sad Future
The Missing Kadara Calrissian
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One of the most anticipated parts of The Rise of Skywalker was the return of Lando Calrissian himself. The Resistance heroes encounter the aged smuggler & war hero on Pasaana, living as a hermit, reluctant to return to the fight. But why was Lando living like this? Well, the story in the film’s deleted scenes has had a huge impact on Lando’s life in the rest of Star Wars canon.
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As revealed in tie-in material for the film, Lando Calrissian actually had a daughter during the New Republic era, named Kadara Calrissian. But sadly, Kadara was kidnapped by the First Order at just two years old, leaving Lando a shell of his former self. This is why Lando was a hermit on Pasaana, and it has changed how he’s characterized post-Endor in canon, with Adam Christopher’s novel Shadow of the Sith showing Lando’s future containing immense regret and sadness, although he did find some peace on Pasaana.
7 General Pryde In The Empire
A Connection Between The Empire & First Order
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One of the new characters introduced in The Rise of Skywalker is Enric Pryde, the Allegiant General of the First Order. But Pryde is not only an iconic performance by Richard E Grant, he has also become a pretty key connection between the original and sequel trilogy eras retroactively. Since his introduction in 2019, Pryde has appeared in several stories, almost all set during the reign of the Empire.
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Pryde claims in The Rise of Skywalker that he served the Emperor “in the old wars”, and Star Wars comics have now shown that. A younger Pryde is seen alongside Darth Vader himself in Greg Pak’s 2020 Darth Vader comic series, where his cunning nature is on display. Beyond that, Pryde’s role in the Battle of Endor has been expanded in a story in From A Certain Point Of View: Return of the Jedi by Adam Christopher, as well as in the New Republic era in Shadow of the Sith also by Christopher.
6 The Truth About Princess Leia’s Jedi Training
Jedi For A Short Time
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One of the biggest questions about Star Wars canon following the events of Return of the Jedi was about Leia pursuing Jedi training. Books related to The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi purported that Leia only trained in a few Force powers after the Battle of Endor. But The Rise of Skywalker absolutely redefined this notion, showing us that while Leia indeed didn’t pursue it far, her training went well beyond basic Force abilities.
In a rare flashback sequence, The Rising of Skywalker actually firsthand depicts Luke and Leia training on Ajan Kloss, dueling in the misty forest. The film revealed Leia’s lightsaber to be blue-bladed, and the saber itself played a major role in the Battle of Exegol as well. The fact that Leia was actually temporarily trained as a Jedi, but quit before her training was complete not only explains her usage of the Force so adeptly in The Last Jedi, but also redefines every post-Endor Leia story in an interesting new way.
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5 Babu Frik & The Anzellans
The Adorable Addition To Canon’s Aliens
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During the Resistance’s brief trip to Kijimi, they stop at the Spice Runners’ droid workshop to see Babu Frik. This tiny, puppet-operated alien is of the Anzellan species, one that has now had a pretty huge affect on canon. In fact, I’d argue that Babu Frik & the Anzellans are now an iconic, if not the most iconic alien design from the sequel trilogy.
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Since 2019, Anzellans have shown up in various places across the Skywalker saga. Most significantly, a group of Anzellans have appeared in The Mandalorian, working on Nevarro in season 3, having some great interactions with Grogu. Also prominent, Shug Drabor was revealed to be the in-universe designer of the Galactic Starcruiser Halcyon, appearing in comics and books.
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4 Exegol, Homeworld Of The Sith
A Total Change In The Sith’s Origin
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One of the biggest introductions that the sequel trilogy accomplished was that of the abstract origin story for both the Jedi and the Sith. Both groups’ “homeworlds” are featured in The Last Jedi & The Rise of Skywalker, with Episode IX introducing Exegol, the cold, blue, desert world considered a Sith redoubt. Even more intriguingly, the Force Dyad shared by Rey and Kylo Ren was apparently the basis for the Sith Rule of Two.
Exegol has been fleshed out both in comics and novels. Perhaps the most exciting of these can be found in George Mann’s Dark Legends, which reveals that Exegol is a Force vergence where the boundary between life and the netherworld of the Force is unusually thin. This explains why Palpatine could only be resurrected on Exegol.
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3 Palpatine’s Master Plan
The Contingency Seeded Decades Earlier
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The biggest reveal in the entirety of The Rise of Skywalker, though, is undoubtedly the fact that Emperor Palpatine survived his “death” in Return of the Jedi. This idea was previously done in Legends stories, but its canon adaptation has arguably had more rippling story effects than it did in Legends. This is because Palpatine’s return necessitates an entire organized Sith cult contingency to create his Final Order on Exegol, and that hasn’t all happened off-screen.
Palpatine’s cloning plot, and the development of his plans beyond Endor have been seeded throughout different Star Wars stories in the years since the film’s release. One such place is in The Bad Batch, where the cloning of Force-sensitives has become a prominent topic of research, and of Palpatine’s interest. Darth Vader has also been revealed to have known about and visited Exegol in comics by Grek Pak, and the idea of Palpatine’s contingency leading to The Rise of Skywalker has been retroactively applied to Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath Trilogy as well.
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2 A Noble “End” For The Skywalkers
Ben Solo’s Redemption & Grace
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One of the most popular aspects of the entire sequel trilogy is Kylo Ren– Ben Solo. As the son of Han and Leia, and a former Jedi, Ben had a big legacy that he was not living up to by being a villain throughout the sequels. Luckily, though, Ben went through a redemption arc in The Rise of Skywalker that gives both him and the Skywalker family as a whole a new legacy.
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Ben returns to the light side of the Force after drifting closer and closer to it, spurred on by his mother’s love, and the selflessness of Rey Force-healing Ben after she succumbed to the dark for a moment. This brought Ben Solo back to the light side, and made the last Skywalker a selfless hero, as Ben sacrificed himself for Rey, giving his own life force to bring her back to life. Ending the genetic Skywalker lineage with an act of pure selflessness, redefines Ben Solo’s character, and makes the family end in the light.
1 The Citizens’ Fleet: Hope For The Galaxy
The Galaxy Has Decided It’s Had Enough
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The climax of The Rise of Skywalker is the Battle of Exegol, where the Resistance is helplessly outnumbered and outgunned against Palpatine’s fleet. Then suddenly, heeding Lando’s call to follow their lead, a gigantic fleet of citizens appears to aid the Resistance, helping them win the day. But this isn’t just a fun moment, it could very well be our biggest look at what the future of the galaxy post-First Order will look like. The people of the galaxy looked to the Resistance for leadership, yes, but they were largely fighting for and with each other.
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The people of the galaxy looked to the Resistance for leadership, yes, but they were largely fighting for and with each other.
This time, it wasn’t an organized military. This type of collaborative effort by citizens of the galaxy was unseen before this, and signifies that things will be different going forward. The war isn’t just won by the people, it’s a constant ideological struggle everyone has to have a hand in, which will hopefully reverberate throughout future Star Wars stories thanks to The Rise of Skywalker.
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6/10 30 5.4/10 Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker
This is the third installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy and serves as the culmination of the Skywalker saga. The film sees Rey (Daisy Ridley), Poe (Oscar Isaac), and Finn (John Boyega) team up to put an end to the First Order after Palpatine mysteriously returns. Jurassic World helmsman Colin Trevorrow was originally named director back in 2015 when the film first entered development, but he parted ways with Lucasfilm due to creative differences over the script. In September 2017, Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams signed on to finish what he started.
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*Availability in US Cast Carrie Fisher , Oscar Isaac , Anthony Daniels , Joonas Suotamo , Mark Hamill , Adam Driver , Ian McDiarmid , Kelly Marie Tran , Billie Lourd , Keri Russell , Richard E. Grant , Daisy Ridley , Lupita Nyong’o , Dominic Monaghan , John Boyega , Domhnall Gleeson , Billy Dee Williams , Naomi Ackie Writers Chris Terrio , J.J. Abrams Budget $275 million Expand