To some Star Wars fans, J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker might have been a jumbled mess, but it turns out that Colin Trevorrow's proposed Star Wars: Duel of the Fates may not have been any more coherent. His Episode IX was scrapped after creative differences with Disney and Lucasfilm caused him to exit involvement in the Disney Sequel Trilogy, but some of the more succinct details found there way into Abrams' film.
From introducing tons of new characters into an already crowded narrative space, to sending heroes and villains hopping all over the galaxy on a series of side quests, there are aspects to Trevorrow's script -leaked months after his departure- that strain the credulity of even the most patient fan.
10 The Spire Of Osis
In Trevorrow's script, Finn, Rose, Poe, and Rey are on the hunt for allies still loyal to the Resistance, and their mission takes them to Coruscant, the home planet of the First Order, once the nucleus of the Galactic Empire, and former capital planet of the Republic.
Their objective is to light an ancient beacon in the Jedi Temple to call for aid. Just where has this beacon been the entirety of the Skywalker Saga? Why was it never mentioned by the Jedi Council, and what makes the heroes think the galaxy would automatically heed that sort of call to arms when they wouldn't respond to General Organa's call for help?
9 Destroying The Orbital Ring
In the proposed film there's an Orbital Ring above the Kuat Moon that acts as a giant fueling station for all the First Order's Star Destroyers in the sector. Rose hatches a plan to detonate it, destroying their means of obtaining fuel as well as the ships themselves.
While that would be an immediate boon for the Resistance, "The First Order is everywhere" according to the film's opening crawl, so blowing up a dozen destroyers and a fueling station wouldn't be enough to stop them any more than blowing up Starkiller Base.
8 General Hux Committing Sepukku
General Hux was introduced as a highly memorable character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Resembling a young Tarkin from the Empire's glory days, he was an entertaining balance of snide and ruthless. He was a young officer willing to do whatever it took to impress Supreme Leader Snoke, but suffered greatly from being relegated to middle-management after Snoke died in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Interestingly enough, Hux would have been made Chancellor in Star Wars: Duel of the Fates, a plot point that strangely implies there was a Senate to still preside over. Trevorrow also had him committing sepukku after losing a climactic battle against ally forces, which doesn't seem nearly as in-character as him committing suicide by hubris on the bridge of a dreadnought.
7 Class Uprising
One of the biggest parts of Trevorrow's script involved Finn would locatking several factions of First Order defectors, as well as ex-stormtroopers sympathetic to the Resistance. He would lead a revolution with their vox populi through the streets, in which their victory would affect ordinary people.
While it can be argued Star Wars films don't always show the "plight" of the ordinary people amidst the great battles, the first Star Wars film featured a young farmboy whinging about never getting to do anything exciting. The Skywalker saga has always been about "ordinary" people doing extraordinary things, but it's also been a story about an epic Force-using dynasty, so for Trevorrow to derail that with a version of Star Wars: Les Miserables seems pedantic.
6 No Romance Between Rey and Kylo Ren
The inclusion of a romance between the light side's newest hero and the dark side's latest conquest was divisive when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was released. Some fans felt it was an organic result of the chemistry between Rey and Kylo Ren, while others felt it was forced and awkward.
, which would have reduced their character development considerably. Kylo would simply have been reduced to "wanting more power", and Rey to "stopping him". The conflict of the Skywalkers has always been defined by the familial, and the conflict between Rey and Ren's forbidden love became something new and divergent.
5 Leia Receiving More Screen Time
As much as fans would have loved to see Leia Organa for a much longer amount of time in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, what they did get to see was a touching tribute and sufficiently interwoven into the overall plot of the film.
Star Wars: Duel of the Fates would have included a much larger part for her, which would have been next to impossible to showcase respectfully given her death in 2016. Fans wouldn't have wanted to see their favorite character rendered irresponsibly for a quick release, even if Leia was going to reappear in her classic white outfit from the original trilogy.
4 Kylo Wanting To Kill Rey
Similar to in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Kylo Ren finds the Sith Holocron/Sith Wayfinder, but it doesn't allow him to fully absorb all of its knowledge because it senses the good in him. He determines he must kill Rey to become truly dark enough to access it.
Kylo's continued quest to be "the Sithiest Sith to ever Sith" would have gotten boring if not for greater subtext and depth. Kylo Ren asking Rey to join him nicely paralleled Vader's appeal to Luke Skywalker, and further cemented the concept of the cycle of destiny. Besides, him putting on a very "Darth Vader inspired mask" in Trevorrow's script only to scream that Vader "clouded his judgment" is a confusing piece of character development.
3 The Introduction Of 2 New Powerful Dark Side Users
Star Wars: Duel of the Fates would have introduced two new dark side users that had never before been seen or mentioned in the Skywalker Saga; Sollony Ren and Tor Valum. Ren would have been a Zabrak (like Darth Maul), second in command of the Knights of Ren, and the main villain of the film after trying to steal the Sith Holocron from Kylo.
Tor Valum would have been a 7,000 year old Sith -and former master of Palpatine's- who was somehow never mentioned by Palpatine and the new mentor of Kylo. The presence of these uber powerful dark side users would have made the film even more crowded and confusing, especially without any context.
2 Poe Flying A Star Destroyer And A Dreadnought
After lighting the ancient beacon on at the Jedi Temple to attract allies to the Resistance, Poe, Rey, and Finn have to find a way to get off Coruscant. According to Trevorrow's script they steal an empty Star Destroyer and proceed to make the jump to lightspeed.
Sometime later the script mentions that Poe is "struggling to pilot the dreadnought", implying the destroyer and dreadnought are interchangeable terms, but either way it strains credulity that Poe could "fly anything"; even Anakin Skywalker, one of the most powerful Force users in galactic history had difficulty bringing in the Chancellor's ship in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.
1 The Amount Of Side Quests
Some fans thought Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was too convoluted upon its release, but Trevorrow's film would have been just as overly-saturated with side quests. Rose undertakes her own mission to the Kuat shipyards, Finn leads his own uprising, Poe travels back to his homeworld, and they all try to find the Spire of Osis, Lando, and Resistance allies.
In the meantime, there is more training for Rey from Luke the Force ghost, Kylo Ren's planet-hopping excursion from Mustafar to Mortis to find the Sith holocron, all while the battle rages on Coruscant. While it would have been nice to see each character have their own mission, there would have been too many loose threads to tie up.
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