Star Wars: Duel of the Fates – Trash or Trashed?
It is no secret how fandom gatekeepers feel about Star Wars since it fell into the hands of Disney. And while not every Star Wars project is perfect, not all creative decisions deserve the hate they get. But there is one decision that I cannot forgive Disney for and that is canceling Colin Trevorrow’s version of Star Wars and replacing it with J.J. Abrams’ weak and soulless final installment, The Rise of Skywalker. Now this begs the question, is Trevorrow’s vision trash or was it trashed? Let’s find out.
Before we get into it, let me preface by saying a leaked script made its way around the internet. Now that’s nothing new, scripts get leaked more often than not. But this one was titled Star Wars Episode IX: Duel of the Fates. Which also happened to be written by Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connelly, respectively. Well, we here at Film Purgatory managed to find said script. I managed to give it a read, and could not put it down. It had everything you could want in a Star Wars film: adventure, awesome lightsaber battles, hope and a few directions never previously explored in Star Wars.
It was a more cohesive and precise narrative compared to Rise of Skywalker as it managed to stand on its own while also being able to close out the trilogy and franchise as a whole in a satisfying manner. Heck some of the things they managed to show in this script were Rey with a double-bladed lightsaber, which many fans agree that suits her more than Luke’s original saber. An actual arc for Finn after getting shafted to the back burner in the second two movies. He went from stormtrooper to rebel to leader, if that is not character growth, I do not know what it is. They also gave us a much darker interpretation of the Knights of Ren, coming out of the gate as terrifying figures that needed no introduction. One of them even possesses the Darksaber!
Speaking of a darker interpretation, this is by far the darkest I have seen Star Wars go, at times bordering on a horror novel. It managed to convey frightening and nightmare-inducing images. From Kylo Ren getting half of his face burnt by a Holocron, to him killing the Sith Lord Tor Valum by sucking out his life force. It even had C-3PO kill another to protect R2-D2, which I never thought would happen. It also managed to bring out the darker side of Rey as she fully embraced her dark side against the Knights of Ren, even unleashing a torrent of force lightning. Oh, and Luke Skywalker’s force ghost CATCHES A LIGHTSABER BY THE BLADE. Who wouldn’t want to see that?!
I know how many people feel about The Last Jedi, and how divisive it is. While it took plenty of risks, not all of them paid off. But one thing Trevorrow’s script did right was not abandon the dangling ideas and story threads for a cheap Palpatine cop-out that wasn’t even properly set up. It kept Kylo Ren as the emotionally disturbed villain, and it even brought back threads from The Force Awakens, which worked out for the most part. It did have him come back to the light at the last second, like in Rise of Skywalker, but it felt earned. You could understand why he was the tortured soul: he was just a scared kid afraid to go home after everything. Also, no out of the blue “Reylo” kiss, as their relationship was NEVER EVER romantic! No enemies to lovers trope here, or ever!
I’ll admit, I read this before seeing Rise of Skywalker. So imagine my disappointment once seeing Rise of Skywalker on the big screen and wonder, “why didn’t Disney go the same route as Trevorrow?” There were probably a couple reasons. One, this script heavily surrounded Leia, and Carrie Fischer passed away not long after this draft was sent in. And two, Trevorrow had the world working against him after that, as the vocal minority really made their displeasure known. This forced Disney to go the safe route and cut Trevorrow loose when their creative ideas weren’t lining up. It was a poor mixture of circumstance and Disney giving the people what they asked for, not what they needed.
So was Duel of the Fates trash or trashed? It was obviously trashed, and for the wrong reasons. It was a well-crafted script that took almost as many risks as The Last Jedi did, only I think most of the ideas Trevorrow and Connelly had were more in line for what fans desired in a Star Wars film. It gave us far more complete arcs for Rey and Kylo Ren, while also remembering its supporting cast also had arcs. For instance, Finn actually rises up to the occasion, instead of wandering around screaming/whispering “REY!!” for 2.5 hours. Trevorrow’s script isn’t perfect either, as there are a few things that I disagree with creatively, but he gave the franchise a high note to go out on. Even if Disney didn’t want to give it to us.
