A new book has revealed a scrapped dark plan that would have seen Coruscant destroyed in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Things got dark at the end of Rise of Skywalker, as the First Order reawakened its terrifying Final Order fleet in one last attempt to take over the galaxy at the hand of the villainous Emperor.
While this was a grim final plan that would have likley seen millions perish across the galaxy, according to a newly revealed piece of concept art, things could have been much worse. In fact, they, at one point, could have featured kamikaze Star Destroyers crashing into the city planet of Coruscant.
Longtime Star Wars artist Doug Chiang unveiled the concept piece as a part of his pair of new books, Doug Chiang: The Cinematic Legacy Volume I & The Star Wars Legacy Volume II (via David Wadey on X). The art depicts a fleet of Star Destroyers diving straight downward at the planet's surface, in an effort to cause as much carnage as possible.
In a caption accompanying the image, Chiang posited, "Coruscant was always described as an extremely fortified planet, so we wondered how the First Order could effectively attack it." And the answer they came up with: kamikaze Star Destroyers:
"Coruscant was always described as an extremely fortified planet, so we wondered how the First Order could effectively attack it. One concept was to use kamikaze Star Destroyers to obliterate entire districts."
Some have speculated that this would have been included in the original version of the Episode IX story written by Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly, titled Star Wars: Duel of the Fates. The original draft of the film seemingly featured a final battle taking place on the surface of Coruscant, where this Star Destroyer dive set piece would have taken place.
Over the years, fans have been teased with what could have been in the unmade version of the final Skywalker Saga movie, including this particularly striking dark plan, as well as a badass moment where Rey strikes a TIE Fighter out of the air. \Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is not available to stream on Disney+. Instead of the final battle of that film taking place on Coruscant, it primarily unfolded on the surface of the Sith world of Exegol.
Why Did Lucasfilm Cut the Grim Episode IX Star Destroyer Moment?
Examining this newly revealed moment from Star Wars: Episode IX is sure to turn some heads among longtime Star Wars fans. The image of massive Star Destroyer battleships hurdling toward the surface of the city planet Coruscant will linger in the minds of many after seeing it.
So, why did Lucasfilm cut the particularly dark moment? Well, it likely has to do with the fact that the Star Wars studio completely abandoned the version of Episode IX that this Star Destroyer moment would have been featured in.
Mid-development, the story as written in the Duel of Fates script was left in the rearview as Lucasfilm opted for what would become The Rise of Skywalker. This means that whatever the movie had planned for its epic Coruscant-set final battle was thrown aside in favor of the Exegol setpiece fans ultimately got.
There would have been no reason to have included kamikaze Star Destroyers on Exegol, as the Resistance was now fighting on the First Order's home turf, rather than the First Order bringing the battle to the Resistance. There would be no justification for using a Star Destroyer as a weapon in this way if the only thing it was going to destroy were Palpatine and his followers.
Instead, it made more sense to keep the battle in the air with the Star Destroyers, leaving Palpatine to battle Rey and Ben Solo on the planet's surface on his own.
