I Want to Love The Rise of Skywalker…

…and I do… but with one caveat.

Don’t get me wrong; I loved Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. My review for it has not changed; while my favorite of this new trilogy is undoubtedly The Last Jedi, the latest- and final- entry into the Skywalker Saga was the most fun I’ve had in a Star Wars flick since, well, the originals. That’s why I make the distinction that Rise of Skywalker is my favorite new Star Wars movie, but Last Jedi is my favorite Star Wars film.

But as much as I enjoyed the latest in the adventures of Rey, Finn, and Poe, it comes with a caveat.

It’s a similar caveat that hovers over other movies I love, such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. It is the caveat of knowing what could have been.

If I didn’t have the leaked script for Duel of the Fates on my iPad (I haven’t read it, but I’ve read enough excerpts and articles about it), if I hadn’t seen beautiful concept art for it, if I hadn’t known that a very different director was once sitting in the director’s chair with a very different vision of the climax of this saga, the caveat wouldn’t exist.

But it does.