Iron Man's fateful final line.
Of course, the Star Wars franchise is no stranger to the reshoot process. Not every situation is as drastic as retooled parts like iral Holdo's characterization in reshoots. Now that The Rise of Skywalker has been out in theaters for a few weeks, it comes out one of its biggest sequences was a reshoot.
Speaking with the Art of the Cut podcast (hat tip Collider), Brandon talked about what Rise of Skywalker scenes were reshoots. In addition to Rey's introduction (where she's floating and calling out to the old Jedi), two other Rey-centric moments were the product of pickups, including Luke's Force ghost appearance:
“The scene on the island with Luke, when Luke sees Rey. The film kind of informed us, after it was together, what it needed to say so we went back and got that dialogue. There was like a funny moment between Poe and Rey when he lands the Falcon and it’s on fire, we wanted to have a more humorous exchange between them. Nothing major, no.”
Mark Hamill was included in the official Rise of Skywalker cast list that was announced prior to principal photography in July 2018, so the plan from the beginning was to give Luke a role in the movie. It's possible that director J.J. Abrams and co-writer Chris Terrio had something different in place for Luke earlier in development, and later decided to change things once they had a greater idea of how the film was shaping up. It's unknown what spurred the alterations, but Brandon specifically mentions the scene's dialogue, implying the reshoots had something to do with Luke's message to Rey. In the final film, the scavenger is at her lowest point when she sees Luke, choosing to live in isolation out of fear of who she is. Skywalker tells his apprentice some things are stronger than blood and encourages her to face Palpatine. It'll be interesting to see if details concerning previous versions are shared.
It's very fascinating Luke's Force ghost scene was a notable Rise of Skywalker reshoot, as that sequence proved to be one of the more controversial in the movie. Some saw it as a rebuke of The Last Jedi, though Abrams denies those claims and like the X-wing retcon), creating unnecessary plot holes. Luke's scene was reshot (at least partially) in July 2019, long after Last Jedi discourse split Star Wars fandom. This isn't to say changes were implemented as a response to Last Jedi's critics, but fans will probably be very curious to learn what about the scene changed.
Source: The Art of the Cut (via Collider)
