Star Wars series, co-writer and director J.J. Abrams intertwined the fate of his new legacy characters with returning threats such as the looming shadow of Emperor Palpatine. Despite the movie's massive budget, The Rise of Skywalker ended up being arguably the most conflicting entry of an already divisive trilogy, and became the lowest grossing entry into the sequel trilogy.
Throughout the new trilogy, viewers have seen evolutions of the stormtrooper aesthetic in different forms. Introduced back in 2015's First Order have employed flametroopers, snowtroopers, and riot-control troopers in order to defeat the Rebellion, all of which are the indoctrinated children of citizens across the galaxy.
Force Awakens & Rise of Skywalker Both Setup & Wasted Finn's Force Story
The Star Wars sequel trilogy frequently teased at the humanity within these troopers, starting with Finn, a main character who started out as a stormtrooper before defecting to the Rebellion. The Rise of Skywalker returns to this idea by introducing a colony of former stormtroopers who our heroes in the final battle, but the truth of the matter is that a stormtrooper rebellion is an idea that warrants its own film.
In The Rise of Skywalker, during Rey, Poe, and Finn's search for Palpatine's wayfinder, they find themselves on the planet Kef Bir. It's there that they run into Jannah (Naomi Ackie), an experienced warrior who Finn discovers defected from the First Order along with a squadron of like-minded stormtroopers after they were ordered to slaughter innocent civilians during the Battle of Ansett Island. It's a sharp parallel to Finn's own story, and the connection that springs between the two of them comes back in the final act of the film in which Jannah and her squadron help the heroes lay siege to the Final Order fleet.
While The Rise of Skywalker already had a lot going on in its narrative, it's a shame that it didn't have more time to flesh out the backstory of this interesting group of characters. The idea of a full-scale stormtrooper rebellion is something that the movies have been teasing since The Force Awakens, and the fact that audiences never see it happen is a shame in its own right. However, Disney has shown repeatedly in the past that they're willing to give new life to ideas that weren't fleshed out in the past.
Jannah's rebellion during the Battle of Ansett Island could easily make a fantastic Disney+ film or miniseries. Just like Jannah's backstory could allow fans to see the culture behind stormtroopers in a way that the Skywalker saga films never have. It would also be a great way to replicate the emotional weight of a movie like Rogue One because it could first showcase the bond shared between of the same squadron, only for those bonds to be broken when Jannah and her compatriots break ranks and turn against their former friends. If Disney wants to capitalize on the plot points abandoned by The Rise of Skywalker, they'll return to the untapped potential left behind by Jannah and her tribe of former stormtroopers.
