>In the unmade Trevorrow/Connolly Star Wars: Episode IX story, Rey had a rather interesting backstory. No, she wasn’t a Solo or a Skywalker. Rey was going to be the daughter of a woman who was a cook, housemaid, and once nanny to Ben Solo. Rey and Ben were to have grown up together and she was like his little sister, living in the Solo household together.

>It is not clear if Rey’s mom was let go because she was a drunkard, but I do know that Colin Trevorrow was continuing with the idea that Rey’s parents were nobodies. It was implied at one time that the father and mother of Rey fought at the Battle of Jakku before taking up domestic duties in the Solo family home. So for whatever reason, they returned to that world.

>The confrontation at the Solo family home

>The end of Colin Trevorrow’s Star Wars: Episode IX was going to take place in a rather interesting place. The end duel was not in some classic location or some badass new world. Colin Trevorrow’s Star Wars: Episode IX had the duel take place inside the Solo family home. Ben was redeemed amongst family memories and he saved Rey from her injuries in their fight in that moment.

>Differences and similarities to The Rise of Skywalker

>There was also going to be a rather strange subplot where First Order villains are erasing people’s memories and reprogramming them. It sounded like there was going to be some Manchurian Candidate type stuff going on in the background of the story.

>I believe that Lando was in this unmade version of Episode IX, but Emperor Palpatine did not make a return. Leia died in the story because Carrie Fisher passed. However, Leia did get a lightsaber in this iteration of the story as well. The movie was also going to have Red Stormtroopers, but they were not Sith Stormtroopers. The film apparently consisted of Kylo chasing Rey around the galaxy, he wanted her to be evil and she wanted him to be good. There were no romantic ties between the characters, and Rey was Ben’s sister in essence. There was a snow planet with a frozen Millennium Falcon but it was in no way Kijimi from the concept art I was shown.

>At one point during production, there was a scene in the Resistance command room with Connix, Rose Tico, General Leia, and a few more background characters. A conversation unfolded in which the freedom fighters discussed the dark magic at play to bring Darth Sidious back. General Leia tells the freedom fighters that this is nothing new, the Sith have hidden in the shadows for a thousand years. General Leia explains to her staff that everything that has transpired was because of the Sith. My sources have said that sequence was as in depth of an explanation that has ever existed. Essentially, in their estimation, J.J. Abrams doesn’t really care how Palaptine has returned, just that he has and the heroes have to deal with that horror. The film apparently leaves the answer to that question in the shadows where the Sith are.

>When Kylo Ren meets Darth Sidious on Exegol, he doubts the old frail man’s power and that he’s actually Darth Sidious at all. Darth Sidious laughs in the face of the Darth Vader wannabe. Kylo is conflicted and annoyed with Darth Sidious but he’s shaken by having seen that Snoke is a clone and hears the old man out. At one point during their conversation on Exegol, Kylo mentions Supreme Leader Snoke outright. The smile on Darth Sidious’ face falls and he makes a rather bold proclamation. Of course the guy who proclaimed “I am the senate!” would also proclaim he’s Snoke because he’s speaking metaphorically. Before we get too crazy, I went digging for clarification on this line of dialogue just to be sure. Sources across the board who would comment on the line believe it is said metaphorically. Darth Sidious is behind Snoke, as Snoke was his puppet creation.

>The film will likely not answer the question about how Darth Sidious survived according to my sources. It will imply he controlled Supreme Leader Snoke, but not that Snoke is actually an avatar of Palptine himself. A sequence we are not even sure was filmed, attempted to explain it, but we do not believe that scene is in the final cut of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.