Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s original MacGuffin was a kill switch that wiped out all First Order tech. With the cinema celebrating the definitive culminate of the Skywalker saga, superintendent J.J. Abrams and co-writer Chris Terrio had to come up with an ending in which the Resistance overcame their opponents once and for all, leaving no doubt evil had been toppled. There’s no denying that was a tough assignment, peculiarly since everyone visualized the galaxy was saved after Return of the Jedi, simply for the First Order to surface years thereafter and wreak havoc.

Bringing Emperor Palpatine back to the fold, the inventive unit opted to give the dark lord a big sail on Exegol, which he planned to use to rule the galaxy with an iron fist. Ships could get to Exegol through help of a Wayfinder, so The Rise of Skywalker became about the hunt for the Wayfinders( only two were obligated) so the heroes could fly to Exegol and wipe out Palpatine’s army. However, first things were quite different and there was another MacGuffin as the main points of the movie.

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In the book The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, prop abstraction decorator Matthew Savage revealed at one point in the script’s development, the MacGuffin was a “kill switch for all First Order tech, created over many generations by an Empire-hating race.” You can see notion prowes of what was referred to as the “sabotage device” in the seat below 😛 TAGEND

It’s unclear why the kill swap project was abandoned during the process, but had it stuck, this would have been where Babu Frik came in. The fan-favorite droidsmith was originally part of the “Empire-hating race” that was small enough to clean Star Destroyer engines and developed the destruction device throughout the years. The main group of Resistance heroes would have to meet Babu to collect the “nearly complete” object and go about their mission. Nonetheless, Terrio felt this angle wasn’t “right for this movie” and they travelled in a different direction. A example can be made The Rise of Skywalker was better for it, since even by Star Wars standards, a magic swap that erases out First Order tech reads as a little too convenient.

Still, it would have been interesting to learn more about Babu Frik’s species and everything they went through. In all likelihood, Babu’s kind wasn’t considered very well by the Empire and the First Order, serving as another sketch of the villains’ tyranny over the part galaxy. Not that the movies needed more proof for why publics should spring against the foes, but this could have been a poignant angle that would have represented Babu a little more than only an adorable scene-stealer. But as it stands, Babu was one of the more universally praised aspects in The Rise of Skywalker, so it all worked out in the end.

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Source: The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Read more: screenrant.com