Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will go down in history as a controversial film that backpedaled on its predecessor to please a minority of fans who ended up not even enjoying this film too much. As fans wonder about the perfect ending to the Disney trilogy that could have been, Colin Trevorrow's leaked Star Wars: Episode IX script ended up having some of those cool ideas.
On Twitter, Trevorrow actually confirmed that he was going to call his version of the film Star Wars: Duel of the Fates, which is an amazing title for a Star Wars movie. Trevorrow did this when a fan asked him if some of the concept art leaked for his canceled film was legitimate, which he said was. Now, this will have fans even more divided about The Rise of Skywalker.
Considering how the canceled movie would have had Kylo Ren battling a phantom version of Darth Vader, minimal involvement from Emperor Palpatine, and no "Reylo" kiss, a lot of fans feel that this movie would have been the perfect ending. It also would have left Rey as a nobody, which would have gotten a lot of bonus points from people who enjoyed The Last Jedi, which is more than Disney realized.
We'll probably never see Star Wars: Duel of the Fates as a movie, though a "What If?" style comic book series would be appreciated. All we can do is hope that the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series doesn't get rushed like The Rise of Skywalker was.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker may or may not be showing in theaters.