A new piece of concept art for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker reveals an alternate design for Dark Rey. Rise of Skywalker closed out the sequel trilogy and the Skywalker saga back in December, but for many fans, it didn’t live up to expectations. Rey was at the center of a lot of criticism since her character was shown from the very beginning of the trilogy to have incredible powers and an unparalleled connection with the Force.
When Rise of Skywalker was released, the criticism surrounding Rey continued. Star Wars: The Last Jedi revealed that Rey’s parents were drunks, but Rise of Skywalker retconned this and made Rey a descendant of Palpatine. This decision saw a lot of backlash from fans, who felt the Palpatine plotline was shoehorned into the end of the trilogy. In one scene in the film, Rey is searching the ruins of the Death Star for the Sith Wayfinder. Rey finds it, but not before having a vision of herself as a Sith. It’s a short scene that ends after a brief lightsaber duel between Rey and the mirror version of herself, but there were a lot of alternate designs that went into making Dark Rey.
Concept artist Adam Brockbank recently shared a piece of his art that was an early design for Dark Rey. The piece is fairly close to what made it into the actual film, with the art showing Rey with a black robe and rocks floating in the background. Brockbank’s full post can be seen below:
In the past few months, there have been tons of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker concept art revealed, partly due to the release of The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The book gave fans a look at some key things that were cut from the film, such as the Oracle on Mustafar and Kylo Ren traversing an abandoned Coruscant. Rey has also been at the center of several pieces of artwork, including one that shows Dark Rey standing next to Kylo Ren in a new throne room and another of Rey Force-choking Kylo Ren.
While the concept art above looks very similar to the design that was used, this artwork does actually make Rey look more sinister, between the dark sunken eyes and the hood that covers half of her face. They didn’t put much makeup on Daisy Ridley in the film to make her look more like a Sith, but just gave her a double-sided lightsaber and a black robe. Including Dark Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was an interesting parallel to what Luke faced on Dagobah, but many fans would have liked to see J.J. Abrams develop the concept a bit more than what he did.
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