One of the defining moments in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy is when Kylo Ren smashes his ridiculous Darth Vader-wannabe helmet in The Last Jedi. Not only did it serve the movie’s “let the past die” theme, it freed Adam Driver‘s glorious mug for everyone to gaze upon.
But Rise Of Skywalker undid all that by having Kylo Ren sheepishly reforge his dumb helmet – which ends up looking like he just painted red lines on it – almost in apology for all the fuss among the Star Wars fandom caused by The Last Jedi.
While the Rise Of Skywalker‘s writer, Chris Terrio, tried mightily to justify the reforging of Kylo’s helmet, apparently the real reason for its return is almost as dumb as the rest of the movie.
Sound editor Matt Wood appeared on the Sound Works Collection podcast to talk about his work on Rise Of Skywalker and he revealed that bringing back Kylo Ren’s helmet wasn’t some narrative reversal or fan service from J.J. Abrams. Rather, it was done as an easy and practical way to change Kylo Ren’s lines in post-production without the need to reshoot any new footage.
We all had a basic idea about all the behind-the-scenes problems during the making of Rise Of Skywalker but it sounds like everything was even worse than we thought. It’s one thing to stuff Adam Driver in a helmet, but it’s another entirely to have him record lines (in his closet no less) for the movie a mere three weeks before it was about to be released.
Surely the Star Wars brain trust could’ve at least come up with a better explanation for the return of Kylo Ren’s helmet than “it’ll help us fix the movie in post-production” but it seems like all that effort went into rewriting lines for Adam Driver to re-record in a closet.
No wonder why Kylo Ren looks so miserable all the time.
As more information about the haphazard way the Rise Of Skywalker was cobbled together is revealed to the world, the more I’m wishing that Lucasfilm and Disney should’ve just let Colin Trevorrow make his Star Wars movie.
Speaking of Adam Driver, the GOAT team break down the biggest talking points about the 2020 Oscars on It’s Been A Big Day For… below:
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