Star Wars fans were surprised when Rae Carson, author of The Rise of Skywalker novelization, confirmed on her Twitter account that the beloved character Nien Nunb died in Episode IX. This led fans to believe that the character didn't survive Palpatine's Force lightning used on the Resistance fleets and that the audience might have even missed such an important moment in the movie. However, the longtime Nien Nunb actor himself debunks these assumptions.
Mike Quinn recently wrote a response to Carson's assertion about his character's death (via Fantha Tracks), revealing a little bit of information about the production to prove that Nien Nunb lives. "There's not a single piece of evidence to suggest otherwise in the final movie," Quinn wrote. "He's piloting Leia's ship from the first Star Wars movie that carries the Death Star plans, the Tantive IV."
Quinn pointed out that the ship did indeed get zapped by the Emperor's Force lightning, as did Poe's X-Wing and everyone else's ships, but Poe mentions shortly after that they're back online. "There's no explosion of the Tantive IV anywhere (which is the standard storytelling convention in these movies)," added. "We even see a ship looking like the Tantive IV coming in to land above the trees at the end."
The actor also revealed that there is another version of the film where Nunb did actually met his tragic fate. "Halfway through filming, they shot the end celebration," Quinn continued. "At that point, Nien was supposed to have sacrificed himself for the cause. That's why he's not seen there."
Quinn says he even had a chat with J.J. Abrams about it while filming the Tantive IV scenes. "He explained they need some sacrifices and even his friend Greg Grunberg was going to bite it," he added. However, the actor said that Abrams swore him to secrecy, and he admitted that he was actually happy to go out as a hero, which seemed a "fitting end" for his character.
Towards the end of his explanation, Quinn asks fans to "deal with facts, not confused minds who think they saw something."
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now showing in theaters.
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