It’ hard to believe it’s only been four years since Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released. Since then, we’ve had three additional movies of varying quality, as well as some TV ventures, including the recent premiere of The Mandalorian on Disney Plus. Sure, there were some controversies along the way. Yet despite some toxic moments, anticipation for The Rise of Skywalker, the final film in the new trilogy, feels just as high as ever.
If The Last Jedi taught us anything, it’s that we should leave our expectations and theories at the door. And yet, that’s not going to stop us from trying to predict what will happen when The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20th! Here are 10 predictions for how the Skywalker Saga will end.
10. Leia Will Survive
Carrie Fisher’s tragic passing in 2016 rocked the entertainment world, but it hit Star Wars fans that much harder. After all, the actor was set to be an important part of the new Star Wars trilogy going forward. It was assumed The Last Jedi, released a year after Fisher’s death, would give Leia an emotional sendoff but to the surprise of many, she survived. It was later announced that unused footage of Fisher from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi would be used to help complete Leia’s story in The Rise of Skywalker … but that doesn’t mean she’s going to be killed off.
For one thing, this would be a difficult emotional needle to thread and one Disney is likely to avoid given the real-world tragedy of Fisher’s death. More importantly, J.J. Abrams has confirmed that Leia’s Rise of Skywalker story was largely unchanged. “We got to tell the story with Leia that we would have told had Carrie lived,” Abrams told Total Film. Even taking the deaths of fellow old guard characters Han Solo and Luke Skywalker into account, it’s hard to see Star Wars sending Leia out in such a fashion. She’ll survive this one, even if it is the last time we see her.
Source: Screenshot via Lucasfilm/Disney