Note: This post contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. If you haven’t seen it yet and wish to remain virginal, turn back now.
Did the opening of The Rise of Skywalker look familiar? It’s set on a red planet, on which Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren mercilessly lightsabers his way through a hooded alien species before nabbing the “Wayfinder” prism thing that leads him to Palpatine’s secret planet. We never hear it’s name, but, as per Entertainment Weekly, a certain Star Wars book reveals that we’ve been there before.
According to Pablo Hidalgo’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, the planet is Mustafar. And if you’re a true Star Wars nerd, you know that’s the location for the climactic lightsaber duel between Annakin and Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith. It’s the lava planet where a mangled Annakin was burned to a crisp, necessitating being encased in a big, black suit and helmet, spending the remainder of his life wheezing as he spoke in a voice quite different from his own.
Mustafar also had a cameo in Rogue One, as the place where Darth Vader built his giant black castle.
As for the unlucky species on the wrong end of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber, they’re the Alazmec, described in the book as “cult colonists,” who “voyage to Mustafar in pilgrimage seeking to tap into the powers that supposedly fueled him.”
So there’s another way The Rise of Skywalker ties everything past into a nice little package. The film’s in theaters now.
(Via EW)
