The latest movie in Disney's Star Wars trilogy has been the source of constant internet discussion since its release, with a group of vocal viewers upset at the final result. Reddit sub "
Saltier than Crait" (referencing the salt mining planet from the Star Wars mythos) sprung up for those to discuss their distaste for the final movie. On Wednesday night, moderator
egoshoppe posted bullet points from
a conversation with someone who claims to be a source "who worked closely on the production of RoS" at an unnamed production company.
According to the post, director J.J. Abrams' was brought on by Disney CEO Bob Iger and that "Disney insisted on fan service over plot development. Abrams' cut of the movie was allegedly different than the final cut we saw because of meddling on behalf of Disney, who was worried the director might transition to Warner Brothers to help out DC's languishing universe of movies. The post claims that Abrams felt "devastated and blindsided" by the final product, had less "creative control" than promised and that his version was 3 hours and 2 minutes long as opposed to the official 2 hour and 22 minute runtime.
According to the post, many plot holes in the movie were filled in Abram's cut. Finn wanted to tell Rey that he was force sensitive, Rose was going to have a "more meaningful arc" and Kylo Ren's redemption to Ben had more scenes that fleshed out the idea. The final kiss between Ben and Rey was a Disney idea that Abrams was against. The post claims that a finale involving past Jedi, like Samuel L. Jackson's Mace Windu or Ewan McGregor's Obi Wan Kenobi, were inevitably cut.
The contents of the post cannot yet be proven as factual and may yet amount to a hoax designed to stir up an angry fan base. Still, leaks on reddit for popular fan properties have happened in the past, most notably with the final episodes of season eight of Game of Thrones. The plots of the episodes were leaked days before their premiere, and those posts proved to be correct. Regardless, take everything you read online with a grain of Cait salt.
Fans on Twitter have been posting "#releasetheabramscut" or "#releasetheJJcut" hashtags to share their thoughts on these alleged leaks. Like DC's Justice League, fans are pleading to see the director's version of the Rise of Skywalker rather than the one we received.