'The Rise Of Skywalker' Concept Art Shows Lighter Version Of Dark Rey

Would This Have Worked?

By Culture SlatePublished 3 years ago • 3 min read

When Lucasfilm/Disney released the so called ”D23 Special Look” at the then upcoming film The Rise of Skywalker, the trailer ended with a sinister looking Rey, holding an U-shaped red lightsaber, which then expanded into a double bladed sword, similar to that of Darth Maul in Episode I.

This dark side Rey quickly led to a lot of fan speculation on what would happen to the heroine of the Sequel Trilogy in this last act of the Skywalker saga. Rey had shown no fear to tap into the dark side of the Force in The Last Jedi – much to the dissatisfaction of her mentor Luke Skywalker – so it seemed quite plausible, that she could turn to the Dark Side in Episode IX, either to beat the reborn Emperor Palpatine at his own game or to even join him, while Kylo Ren would be redeemed and returned to his Jedi past.

Ultimately the Dark Rey scene was just a short vision to her on the wreckage of the second Death Star, more like a jump scare moment that didn’t really have any purpose or deeper meaning. Even the look of her was rather unspectacular, as Dark Rey lacked the yellow eyes of a Sith, while still wearing the classical dark robes, like so many dark-siders before her. Probably the most intimidating thing about her were her sharp teeth, she showed when hissing at her light side alter ego.

A recently released piece of early concept art for The Rise of Skywalker now shows a quite different version of Dark Rey, although this name is somehow misleading. Adam Brockbank, a concept artist and illustrator, who is probably best known for his work on all eight of the Harry Potter films, but also did a lot of illustrations for the four most recent Star Wars movies, recently shared the following on his Instagram account:

This Rey is completely dressed in white, something that looks definitely more Jedi- than Sith-like, though her clothing lacks the hood that is preset in most Jedi (and also Sith) robes. She has a definite Galadriel-like look to her - the elf from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth legendarium, who was portrayed by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of The Rings films.

Though not a typical dark side appearance, Rey still looks haunting (and maybe even haunted) in this picture, with her white-grey hair and the red markings on her face, as if something had burnt her. The look on her face is not necessarily evil, rather surprised or overwhelmed, as if she had just realized that she had done something terrible, or found out about the true power, that had awoken inside her.

The illustration has Rey is standing on Coruscant amidst a rain of ash, which is strange, as Colin Trevorrow’s script for Episode IX (called Duel of The Fates) does include several scenes that take place on the capital of the galaxy, but none with Rey. So, this picture could either stem from a very early time in the creative process, or shortly after J.J. Abrams had taken over, when the idea of an “alternate” Rey was already there, but no finished script for the movie, just a mixture of ideas from Trevorrow and Abrams.

It would have definitely been interesting to see a Rey like this in The Rise of Skywalker, a Force user who could touch both the light and the dark side without being completely consumed by one of it. A Force dyad, but not with two people, just within one person. Unlike what we got in the final movie, this would have been something new and could have hoped to remedy one of the things the sequel trilogy was critiqued for: being too repetitive and not adding enough innovative things to the Star Wars saga.

Apart from this, Brockbank has drawn other versions of Dark Rey as well, one that looks quite similar to what we got in the final movie, one version that is truly Sith-like, and one where she almost looks like a ghost in a dark-red robe: