At the beginning of this week, Star Wars fans were treated to the footage from The Rise of Skywalker that had premiered at D23 the weekend prior. While the biggest takeaway from this video was seeing a sinister-looking Rey wielding a double-bladed red lightsaber, there was also a cool shot of a normal-looking Rey engaged in another lightsaber duel with Kylo Ren, this time on some kind of sea-bound structure as waves crash around them.
Just like every new trailer and general preview for the latest installment of a fan-favorite property, fans have been studying this new Rise of Skywalker footage closely, and one person noticed that there’s an error in this Rey vs. Kylo Ren moment: Kylo’s not actually wearing a cape. As pointed out on Reddit, If you look at the reflection on the floor where these two characters are fighting, Kylo’s cape is nowhere to be seen.
There are two possibilities at work here. One, Adam Driver was never wearing a cape while shooting this scene and it was added digitally, but the VFX team forgot to include the cape in the reflection. Or two, Driver did have a cape on, but the reflection itself is digital, and once again the VFX team slipped up making sure it matched up with what was actually happening. Who knows, maybe it’s even a combination of the two, with both the cape and the reflection being digital.
Whatever happened here, it’s a minor slip-up at best, and this is hardly the first time an article of clothing or part of a costume/outfit has been digitally added in a major blockbuster. For example, earlier this year, Avengers: Endgame featured a fight between Captain America and his 2012 self, and we learned after the fact that a mask was added to 2012 Steve Rogers’ face after test screening audiences had trouble keeping track of which Star-Spangled Avenger was which.
Making a movie is a difficult endeavor, whether it’s an independent production or an entry in one of the biggest franchises of all time. No finished feature film is ever without at least one mistake, and even if they have numerous ones, usually you won’t catch them on first glance in the theater; it requires studying said movie when it’s available on home media. In any case, it’s a good bet that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will have a few other errors/goofs, but that’s to be expected.
As for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker as a whole, even though it’s a little under four months until the movie finally arrives, there’s still a lot we don’t know about the plot. All that’s been officially revealed so far is that it takes place one year after The Last Jedi and will wrap up not only the conflict between The Resistance and The First Order, but also the Jedi and the Sith’s millennia-long clash.
Along with plenty of familiar faces accompanying Daisy Ridley’s Rey and Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren, like John Boyega’s Finn and Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron, to name a few, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is also introducing new characters like Naomi Ackie’s Jannah, Richard E. Grant’s Allegiant General Pryde and Keri Russell’s Zorro Bliss. Episode IX also marks the return of Billy Dee Williams and Ian McDiarmid as Lando Calrissian and Emperor Palpatine, respectively, and unused footage of Carrie Fisher from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi will allow Leia Organa to be present, too.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens in theaters on December 20, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more coverage. In the meantime, browse through our 2019 release schedule to learn what other movies are coming out before the year is over.
