The Rise of Skywalker mystery planet is a Star Wars location we've been to before
Warning: This story contains a minor spoiler for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
A previously unidentified planet seen in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is actually a major location we’ve been to before.
In the opening scene of the J.J. Abrams-directed film, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is seen slashing through a crowd of hooded aliens in a forest bathed in red light as he seeks to obtain a pyramid-shaped “wayfinder” to locate the Sith planet Exegol.
The planet Kylo is on isn’t named, nor are his enemies, and the scene only lasts a minute or so. But this is actually a major Star Wars location, and it helps explain what’s going on in the film’s propulsive opening moments.
According to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, by Pablo Hidalgo, Kylo is actually on Mustafar — the lava planet where Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi had their fateful clash in Revenge of the Sith, and where Darth Vader later built his towering black castle (seen in Rogue One).
From the book: “Kylo soon outpaces his stormtrooper escorts as he cuts a swath of destruction through the Alazmec who attempt to block his path to Vader’s castle — or rather, its crumbling ruins. Kylo enters the castle grounds with purpose, and finds an ark containing an artifact that will lead him to answers.”
The Alazmec are the creatures Kylo is cutting down. They’re described as “cult colonists” who “voyage to Mustafar in pilgrimage seeking to tap into the powers that supposedly fueled him, and wear “sodium silicate-dusted protective clothing” and wide-set goggles to protect their eyes from blowing ash.
One doesn’t normally associate trees with Mustafar, but the book explains the Alazmec “planted a thin forest of irontrees… in a futile attempt to reinvigorate the glen that covered the land centuries earlier.”
Another detail from the companion book puts a rather big twist on Lando Calrissian’s cryptic final scene with Jannah.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now in theaters.
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