‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ Star Dominic Monaghan Hopes for J.J. Abrams’ Director’s Cut
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After an anonymous Reddit user posted this week alleging that the final chapter of the Skywalker Saga “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” was subjected to significant studio meddling, fans ran with the conspiracy theory and urged Disney to #ReleaseTheJJCut in a bid to bring to light a director’s cut from J.J. Abrams.
Now, “Star Wars” actor Dominic Monaghan has indirectly added fuel to those rumors when he suggested in a recent interview “there was so much stuff” left on the cutting room floor (via The Hollywood Reporter). However, Monaghan, who plays Beaumont Kin, didn’t directly address the conspiracy in the wide-ranging THR interview published Friday.
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“Like a lot of ‘Star Wars’ fans, I’m hoping there will be a director’s cut so we’ll get to see more and more of the stuff that was filmed,” he said. “I wasn’t there all the time, but even in the short time that I was there, there was so much stuff filmed that didn’t make it to the theatrical version. … Oh, man, there was so much stuff!”
Monaghan suggested that among the scenes cut was one involving his character, Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), and Lieutenant Connix (Billie Lourd), which lines up with Tran’s account of unused final battle footage.
Co-writer Chris Terrio recently told The Wrap about footage of General Leia (Carrie Fisher) that didn’t make it into the final film.
“There is [more] stuff out there” from “Rise of Skywalker,” he said. “It may be on deleted scenes or something, but there are things that didn’t quite make it in, in fact one or two scenes I really liked that didn’t make it in, but to keep the film moving, I totally understand the reasons why those things were cut. But there is certainly other glimpses of Carrie that didn’t make it.”
It’s not unusual for studios to have a say in a film’s final cut or for even large amounts of footage to go unused.
But on “The Rough Cut” podcast “Rise of Skywalker” editor Maryann Brandon admitted the film’s production was rushed, which made for a challenging editing process, raising questions about what could have become of the film there had been more room to breathe during production.
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