- Warning: There are spoilers ahead for "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker."
- Rey hears the voices of former Jedi encouraging her to take down Emperor Palpatine near the film's end.
- The film's visual-effects supervisor, Roger Guyett, told Insider the filmmakers might have discussed the idea "of actually visually seeing" the Force ghosts at one point but thought it was more powerful to feel as if you were in Rey's head at that moment.
- Similarly, if you were expecting to see Sith lords like Darth Maul and Revan pop up in the big arena scene, that wasn't going to happen. The Sith loyalists seen near the film's end were always supposed to feel anonymous.
- "I don't remember any great desire to be overly specific about who they were in that group," Guyett said.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
During a pivotal moment in "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," the voices of former Jedi talk to Rey (Daisy Ridley), encouraging her to defeat Emperor Palpatine and bring balance to the Force once and for all.
If you were hoping to see Rey surrounded by physical Force ghosts in that moment, the film's visual-effects supervisor says it wasn't something the team worked on.
"I think that in some ways to me, the voices are almost more powerful than the idea of actually visually seeing them," Roger Guyett told Insider on Monday during a press day while discussing the visual effects for "The Rise of Skywalker.""I think we talked about that at one stage."
Instead of a group of Force ghosts, we hear quick lines from Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), Yoda (Frank Oz), Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) and more. Animated "Star Wars" fan favorites like Ahsoka Tano (Maria Ashley Eckstein) and Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr.) can also be heard.
Why didn't we see physical forms of the Jedi surrounding Rey?
"What I liked about that idea as it developed was that you feel like you're with Rey and you're inside her head," Guyett said. "Of course, it's very subjective about what may or may not feel right for that moment, but what we were trying to capture was that it was happening to her inside her head by using voices rather than physical representations of those people within that space."
It makes for a parallel back to Rey when she first heard Jedi voices during her Force vision in 2015's "The Force Awakens."
According to the "Rise of Skywalker" co-screenwriter Chris Terrio, the team considered having other Force ghosts in the film's final shots, with Luke and Leia Skywalker looking at Rey on Tatooine.
"Spiritually, it's not a crazy idea that all the Jedi would be standing with them, but it might've been a bit of a visual shock to see all these new characters on Tatooine who weren't part of the story of Leia, Luke, and Rey,"Terrio told The Hollywood Reporter.
"It's a fair question from fans because it's a question that we debated endlessly — about what the final shot of Force ghosts would be," he continued. "We spent hours and hours talking about this and debating it, and we decided that the moment when the Jedi have to be there for Rey, when it dramatically counts, is when she hears their voices."
And what about the Sith Lords in the colosseum? Could we have seen specific iconic characters from the past? No.
Another moment when you may have expected to see some familiar faces might have been in the large colosseum where Rey and Palpatine faced off. Countless mysterious Sith supporters shrouded in dark cloaks could be seen cheering.
That could have been an opportunity to see characters like Darth Maul, Count Dooku, or the video game character Darth Revan.
"I think the notion is that those are Sith loyalists within that arena and that they were, in some ways, more anonymous in their part in that particular process," Guyett said. "But they were loyalists and I don't remember any great desire to be overly specific about who they were in that group."
"That scene is sort of spiritual in so many ways," the creature-effects supervisor, Neal Scanlan, said. "The weight of the stage, the art direction of it, all of those things. It's almost like it's an abstracted moment, and for that reason the devil's not in the detail — the devil is in the emotion that you feel, the weight that you feel in that scene."
Ultimately, having a giant Sith reunion could have detracted from the two larger characters in the scene.
"It does retain the focus on Palpatine and Rey," Guyett said. "I think there was a certain kind of anonymous quality to those loyalists that I think [director JJ Abrams] felt also underlined the scene. It's an interesting idea."
"The Rise of Skywalker" is in theaters.
- Read more:
- The 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' visual-effects team explains Rey's new lightsaber and the small detail you may have missed in it
- A 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' book hints Lando Calrissian may have a direct connection to a new character in the movie
- 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' finally gives a definitive answer about Rey's identity, and not everyone will be happy
- 12 clues you may have missed that hinted at Rey's true identity in the 'Star Wars' sequel trilogy
- 27 celebrity cameos you probably missed while watching 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Here's how to escape a flooding vehicle