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Secret CGI, subtle callbacks, and those other Rise of Skywalker details you didn't spot!
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00:00Now, sadly, this list won't be able to turn back time and change the fact that Rey was actually a
00:05Palpatine all along.
00:07However, it will be able to shed some light on some easily missed cameos,
00:11a few brilliant nods to the past that won't leave you cringing,
00:15and many more Rise of Skywalker features and easter eggs you possibly never noticed.
00:21So I am Gareth here from WhatCultureStarWars,
00:24and here are 20 things you somehow missed in Star Wars Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker.
00:3120. That Mysterious Message Could Actually Be Heard on Fortnite
00:35Within the opening few seconds of The Rise of Skywalker,
00:40fans were hilariously informed that the dead speak,
00:44as Episode IX's opening crawl explained how Emperor Palpatine
00:48had recently sent out a mysterious broadcast threatening revenge.
00:52However, the words of Zombie Palpatine uttered in this message were never actually heard.
00:58In the film, that is.
01:00If you weren't immersed in the world of Fortnite at the time of the movie's release,
01:04you probably missed the fact that Palpatine's sinister broadcast actually debuted during a December 14th event in the game
01:11dedicated to the incoming Star Wars feature.
01:15Sometimes it pays to play video games, you know.
01:1819. It's a song
01:20Star Wars lost a mighty hero during the events of The Last Jedi,
01:25with Admiral Jeel Ackbar shockingly being blasted out of the Raddus.
01:29However, his legacy actually lived on in The Rise of Skywalker.
01:33That Mon Calamari resistance fighter seen on the hero's Ajan Kloss base throughout Episode IX,
01:39that's none other than Jeel's own flesh and blood, Aftab Ackbar,
01:43a character first seen in the Allegiance comic books.
01:46He was doing his daddy proud.
01:4918. Ralph McQuarrie's concept art inspired thrones and locations
01:54The late, great conceptual designer Ralph McQuarrie was responsible for creating some of the most fascinating concept art in movie
02:02history.
02:03With many of those ideas heavily influencing the galaxy far, far away, fans know and adore today.
02:09And his exceptional work managed to find its way into the final Skywalker Saga entry, too.
02:15Palpatine's intimidating Sith throne on Exegol was evidently inspired by McQuarrie's unused concept art for the Emperor's throne in Return
02:23of the Jedi,
02:24as confirmed by Lucasfilm creative art manager Phil Sostak on Ex.
02:29Also, as noted by Lucasfilm story group member Pablo Hildago,
02:33the mirror spires on the planet Avexia Poe Dameron Lightspeed skips to early on in Episode IX
02:39were influenced by some of the works seen in the illustrated Star Wars Universe book
02:43that contained a ton of McQuarrie's fantastic art.
02:4717. The Origins of Location Names
02:50The Rise of Skywalker introduced Star Wars fans to the likes of the Snowy Kijimi
02:55and another moon of Endor known as Kethbeer.
02:59When it comes to that former location,
03:01you likely didn't spot that J.J. Abrams actually seemingly opted for that specific name
03:06as a nod to a real-world item.
03:09Abrams is quite the fan of a Japanese company known as Black Corporation,
03:13and they also produce a synthesizer that goes by the name of, you guessed it, Kijimi.
03:18The company even posted a photo of the director holding said item on their Instagram
03:23a few months before the film came out.
03:26Elsewhere, the location where Janna and the rest of her stormtrooper pals mutinied
03:30and set island is actually an anagram of Staten Island,
03:35the birthplace of Episode IX screenwriter Chris Terrio.
03:38Coincidence? I think not.
03:4016. Lando Calrissian and Wedge Antilles record-setting returns after 36 years away
03:47The Rise of Skywalker was the first time in over three decades
03:51both Billy Dee Williams and Dennis Lawson
03:54appeared on screen as Lando Calrissian and Wedge Antilles, respectively.
03:59Though Lawson did actually lend his voice to the character
04:02for GameCube's Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2 Rogue Leader game back in 2001.
04:06But with that not technically counting as a live-action-slash-on-screen performance
04:11from the OG trilogy Thespian,
04:13both Lawson and Williams' welcome comebacks to the galaxy far, far away
04:17ultimately set the record for the longest time between on-screen Star Wars appearances.
04:22With both of the original trilogy actors last appearing in The Return of the Jedi,
04:27a whopping 36 years before Episode IX landed in theatres.
04:3215. Rey was right about BB-8 doing the same thing she did
04:36Not long after showing she possessed the ability to heal other living beings
04:41by transferring Force energy from herself to a wounded Vexus,
04:46Rey tells her little astromech pal BB-8
04:49that he would have no doubt done the same in that position.
04:53Far from being a throwaway compliment from the powerful Force user, though,
04:57this actually acts as a subtle piece of foreshadowing.
05:00When the gang eventually find themselves on Ochi's ship on Persona,
05:04the rolling hero bumps into another small droid.
05:08And after spotting that this diminutive bot was very much deactivated,
05:12BB-8 swiftly decided to pump some power into little Dio,
05:16voiced by JJ Abrams in the flick,
05:18and bring him back to life.
05:20Proving that this resistance legend certainly would offer a bit of his own energy
05:24to heal-slash-fix someone when given the chance to.
05:27Rey knew her droids, dammit.
05:30Number 14, Ben Solo's facial scar disappears after he's healed.
05:35The Force Awakens ended with the fallen Ben Solo
05:38clearly getting slashed across the bridge of his nose
05:41by an unexpectedly powerful Rey on Starkiller Base.
05:45He got his ass whooped.
05:46This scar then bizarrely moves a few inches across his mug in The Last Jedi,
05:51due to Rian Johnson feeling the wound looked a bit goofy where it originally was.
05:55But what you may not have caught during your first few watches of The Rise of Skywalker
05:59was the fact said facial scar disappears entirely after one rather important moment.
06:05When Rey repeats her aforementioned healing trick on the son of Leia Organa and Han Solo,
06:11after stabbing him on Kef Bia,
06:13keep an eye on Ren's face.
06:15As Kylo Ren is gradually pulled back towards the light by his parents and the other half of the Dyad
06:20of the Force,
06:21the mark Rey put there in the first place gradually fades away during the recovery process
06:27and is absent for the rest of the film.
06:29Number 13, A Few Bad Robots Turn Up In Babu Frick's Workshop
06:34Just before the protocol pal C-3PO has his memory wiped in Babu Frick's workshop,
06:40in order to successfully translate the Sith language pointing the team in the direction of the all-important Wayfinder,
06:47a B-1 battle droid can be found sitting over the golden figure's shoulder.
06:51And that wasn't the only bad robot in Frick's place of work either.
06:55According to the film's Creature Effect Supervisor Neil Scanlon,
06:59an actual little red droid version of the mascot for Abrams' Bad Robot Production Company
07:04was also hanging out somewhere in the area.
07:07You just never know who you're going to bump into in Frick's droid wonderland.
07:11Number 12, A New Hope Starfield Makes an Appearance
07:14Rey had just been well and truly drained by her despicable grandfather.
07:20That did not sound as weird in my head.
07:22However, just as Darth Sidious was in the middle of ripping apart the Resistance fleet
07:26with his ridiculously powerful Force Lightning Storm,
07:30his own flesh and blood began to ask the Jedi of the past to give her a hand in taking
07:35out the revived Emperor.
07:37And it was in this moment when a Starfield could be seen as Rey heard the many different helpful voices.
07:43But this wasn't just any old collection of stars, folks.
07:46It was eventually confirmed by Visual Effects Supervisor Patrick Tubuk
07:50that this is actually the same Starfield fans first saw all the way back in 1977,
07:56when the opening crawl of the first Star Wars had reached its end.
08:00How cool is that?
08:02Number 11, Some Famous Jedi Helped Rey Take Down Palpatine
08:06And while on the subject of Rey calling on the Jedi of the past to help her whoop Palpatine's wrinkly
08:12ass,
08:12the collection of famous Jedi faces J.J. Abrams managed to assemble for this awesome voiceover ensemble
08:18is more impressive than you initially may have realized.
08:22Along with the awesome return of the likes of Mark Hamill and Hayden Christensen
08:26as Luke and Anakin Skywalker, respectively,
08:28Deep Breath
08:30Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn, Sir Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi,
08:35Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano, Freddie Prinze Jr. as Kanan Jarrus,
08:39Olivia Diabo as Luminara Unduli, Jennifer Hale as Ayla Secura,
08:44Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu, Angelique Perrine as Adi Gallia,
08:48and last but certainly not least, Frank Oz as Yoda all show up when Daisy Ridley's Rey needs them the
08:54most.
08:55This was pretty much Star Wars version of a muddy Chris Evans bringing together Earth's mightiest heroes
09:00to take down a nutsack-chinned Mad Titan.
09:03Number 10, Rey's new lightsaber was built from her quarterstaff.
09:08After using the lightsabers of various Skywalkers during the Skywalker saga,
09:13Rey finally switched on her own personal Jedi weapon just before The Rise of Skywalker concluded.
09:19And there's a solid chance you were too blinded by the fact Rey decided to go for a fresh yellow
09:24blade
09:24for her weapon of choice, complete with a yellow kyber crystal,
09:28to spot exactly what that lightsaber was made of.
09:31Well, as confirmed by Visual Effects Production Supervisor Roger Goethe,
09:35the hilt of the laser sword was actually crafted from bits of the quarterstaff she'd been using since episode 7.
09:41So she'll always carry a piece of her Jakku past with her
09:44whenever she's slicing her way out of trouble in the years post-Rise of Skywalker.
09:49Number 9, C-3PO's last line in the saga was the same as his first.
09:54In another cute nod to the film that started it all in the flick that, well, ended it,
09:59C-3PO's final line in the Skywalker saga was actually the same as the first one he ever uttered in
10:05the galaxy far, far away.
10:07That's right, back when 3PO and R2-D2 were first introduced on a rebel ship in the opening scene of
10:13A New Hope,
10:14the Golden Protocol droid's first words were, did you hear that?
10:18And that's exactly the same thing Anthony Daniel's droid legend asked his long-time astromech pal on Arjun Kloss
10:24after the Battle of Exegol when Rey arrives back at the Resistance base in Luke Skywalker's X-Wing.
10:30Number 8, C-3PO's 42 years line is a reference to the release of 1977's first Star Wars.
10:37When Poe, Dameron, Finn, Chewbacca, Rey, BB-8 and 3PO arrive on Persona to continue Luke Skywalker's search for Exegol,
10:46the iconic protocol droid was quick to let the gang know that they had landed in the middle of the
10:52Aki Aki Festival of the Ancestors.
10:54What are the chances?
10:55He'd also reveal to the lucky group of Resistance heroes that this vibrant festival only happened once every 42 years.
11:03And you'll never guess how long it had been since the release of A New Hope at the time The
11:07Rise of Skywalker was originally in theatres.
11:10Yep, 42 years, baby!
11:13Number 7, A Star-studded Resistance Fleet
11:16Just when it looked like our heroes were done for as they attempted to stop the Emperor's final order on
11:22Exegol,
11:23the mother of all reinforcements arrived to save the day.
11:26And with so many ships, a staggering 14,000 strong, soaring in to assist Poe, Dameron and what remained of
11:33the Resistance,
11:34it would have been pretty much impossible to spot each and every epic spaceship cameo present in this triumphant arrival
11:41during a first watch.
11:42But when you do take a second to pause the heroic entrance of the Citizen's Fleet,
11:47everything from Harrison Dula's ghost ship to Princess Leia's Tantive IV flagship
11:51to the same sort of N1 starfighter used by the likes of Anakin Skywalker and Din Djarin over the years
11:58are all there flying into action.
12:00A hammerhead corvette first seen in the animated Rebel series,
12:04a number of Mon Calamari star cruisers just like the one Admiral Raddus flew in Rogue One A Star Wars
12:09Story,
12:10and many more familiar ships were all led into battle by the legendary Millennium Falcon too,
12:15with the shot of this fleet finally showing up absolutely overflowing with starship nostalgia.
12:22Number 6, Another Holdo Maneuver
12:24After the Resistance's victory on Exegol,
12:27thank you very much Citizens Fleet,
12:29fans are taken back to the forest moon of Endor in a sequence showing how folks across the galaxy were
12:35rising up against the First Order.
12:37Here, the brave Ewoks are seen staring at an obliterated Star Destroyer hovering over their home.
12:43And if you take a closer look at that recently ripped-in-two ship from the First Order fleet,
12:48it soon becomes clear that some fearless soul opted to take a leaf out of Vice Admiral Amalyn Holdo's book
12:54in Episode 9.
12:55One eagle-eyed fan on Exegol noticed how the white beams of light bursting out of the back of the
13:01First Order Destroyer
13:02looked exactly like the ones that were left behind by the Holdo Maneuver in The Last Jedi,
13:07with the Vice Admiral wrecking some enemy ships by ramming them as she jumped to hyperspace.
13:12One in a million moved my ass, Finn.
13:15Number 5, Tons of Sinking Beans
13:18As Rey, Finn, Poe and the rest of the gang find themselves slowly being pulled into a sinking field on
13:24Persona,
13:25you likely weren't thinking about exactly what that black sand was actually made of.
13:29Weirdly enough though, that wasn't really sand at all.
13:32The cast were very much sinking into a collection of different materials on set, including black beans.
13:38A massive 30 tons of those little black beans were used whilst filming this impressive practical effect in the end,
13:45due to the fact they were easier to push through than actual sand.
13:49So there you go.
13:50Number 4, The Rise of the Cameos
13:53Joining the likes of the many returning cameo Jedi voices,
13:57one of The Rise of Skywalker's screenwriters, Chris Terrio, voiced the aforementioned Aftab Akbar.
14:03Warwick Davis made his Star Wars comeback as Wicked W. Warwick on the forest moon of Endor
14:08alongside his son Harrison Davis as Pommet.
14:11And Ed Sheeran showed up as a stormtrooper and the Resistance's Engi Golba in episode 9.
14:17Elsewhere, Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also helped create the Lido Hay song heard on Persona,
14:22shows up in the background during the Resistance's celebrations on Arjun Kloss.
14:26Mark Hamill added another Star Wars cameo to his growing list by voicing the Ovisian,
14:31who delivers a message to our heroes early on.
14:34Clerks director Kevin Smith could be seen as a Kijimi local too.
14:37And then there was the legendary John Williams,
14:40who briefly showed up on that same planet as Oma Trez,
14:44with Abrams and his team actually surrounding the iconic composer with various props
14:48that celebrated many of the films he'd majestically scored over the years.
14:52Lovely touch.
14:54Number 3, Ray's Dirty Face and Visor were actually CGI.
14:58While there was certainly a decent amount of outstanding practical effects visible in J.J. Abrams'
15:04second sequel trilogy flick, one particular moment involving the woman who murdered her evil
15:09grandfather on Exegol, leaving that planet actually boasted far more CGI than you likely noticed.
15:16As revealed in ILM's fascinating behind-the-scenes look at some of the magnificent digital effects
15:21used in episode 9, Daisy Ridley surprisingly didn't have to spend a bit of time in the makeup chair
15:26having dirt applied to her face and costume, or look through a visor whilst filming her battleground exit.
15:33All of these elements were actually entirely digital,
15:36and impressively layered on top of her performance after she'd shot the cockpit moment.
15:41Number 2, Maskinata was an animatronic instead of CGI.
15:45From sneaky Star Wars CGI to an unexpected lack of it,
15:50Maskinata's return in The Rise of Skywalker was actually a whole lot more practical
15:54than her first few appearances in episodes 7 and 8.
15:58J.J. Abrams had actually originally wanted to go down the puppet route for Lupita Nyong'o's Pirate Queen
16:03during the making of The Force Awakens, but eventually settled on creating the character via CGI-slash-motion capture.
16:10However, when it came time to bring the humanoid back as Leia's advisor in episode 9,
16:15Creature and special makeup effects creative supervisor Neil Scanlon
16:19would eventually tell CinemaBlend that the director wanted the various characters sharing scenes
16:24with the late Carrie Fisher's Leia, brought to screen via digital effects and unused footage
16:28from The Force Awakens, to be quote-unquote intimately involved.
16:33So the team created a highly advanced animatronic puppet for the moment
16:37Maskinata could be seen interacting with the likes of Leia and Chewbacca in the flick,
16:41with digital effects only being used to perfect a few details and erase riggings.
16:46Number 1. The Callbacks to Rey's Beginnings
16:49Back when Star Wars fans first met Daisy Ridley's eventual Jedi warrior Rey on Jakku in 2015,
16:56as the nobody rummaged around the Empire's destroyed ship for parts.
17:01This involved a lot of jumping and swinging from high places,
17:04before the masked hero hopped on a piece of metal and slid down a sand dune.
17:08And as a nod to those humble beginnings,
17:10The Rise of Skywalker actually contains a few moments that act as callbacks to Rey's scavenging introduction.
17:17Take the moment Rey is searching for the Sith Wayfinder on the second Death Star.
17:21Her handy parkour skills are once again on show,
17:24as she hops around another battered Empire relic.
17:27Also, as she arrives on the desert planet of Tatooine to bury her master's lightsabers,
17:32the Jakku native simply couldn't resist going for one more little sand sled ride on her way down into the
17:38last homestead.
17:39Rey may have ultimately become one of the most powerful Force users in the galaxy by the end of The
17:44Rise of Skywalker,
17:45but she evidently never forgot where she came from.
17:49And that's our list.
17:49Know of any other things that people somehow missed in Star Wars Episode 9, The Rise of Skywalker?
17:54Well, let us know all about them in the comments section right down below,
17:57and don't forget to like, share, and click on that subscribe button while you're down there.
18:02I have been Gareth from WhatCultureStarWars.
18:04Cheers for hopping back into the Skywalker saga with us today.
18:07May the Force be with you, and hopefully we'll see you soon.
18:10Bye-bye!
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