Like most films, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker underwent a number of changes throughout its development, which leads fans to wonder what some of the abandoned concepts for the conclusion of the Skywalker Saga might have been, but Daisy Ridley recently confirmed that there was no question about Ben Solo passing away after helping Rey confront Emperor Palpatine. The actress did admit, however, that there was a debate over whether or not Rey should kiss Ben Solo before his passing, but to the disappointment of some, there was no version of the film’s finale in which Ben survived the encounter.
“Daisy says the only two possible [The Rise of Skywalker] endings was kiss or no kiss, she said Ben dying was the only thing that never changed from the beginning and that there was no dialogue in the kiss scene other than ‘Ben’ and her saying ‘No, no, no, no’ when he died,” Sariah Wilson shared on Twitter after conducting an interview with Ridley.
Reylo fans: Daisy says the only two possible TROS endings was kiss or no kiss, she said Ben dying was the only thing that never changed from the beginning and that there was no dialogue in the kiss scene other than “Ben” and her saying “No, no, no, no” when he died.
— Sariah Wilson (@sariahwilson) February 3, 2021
Even though many fans might have wished there was a scenario in which Ben Solo lived, knowing that this was always his fate might be somewhat of a relief, because if there was a scene filmed in which he survived, it would seem as though there was more likelihood that the filmmakers could have opted to go this direction instead of what we saw in the theatrically released film. With recent years seeing fan campaigns for the release of unseen sequences or entire alternate versions of beloved properties, were Ben Solo’s survival to have existed on film, fans likely would have made every effort to get these scenes released.
The conviction from some audiences was so passionate regarding what they had hoped to see in the film, there were even wild theories that the final scenes of the film featured repurposed footage from an earlier sequence and that the film was meant to conclude in an entirely different way. The film’s editor, Maryann Brandon, confirmed those theories were false.
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