On May 10, 2019 Ben Hoyle of the Times had the pleasure of interviewing John Williams and subsequently wrote the following about their conversation:
“Williams beams when he talks about watching an early cut of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which will bring the nine-film space saga to an end this Christmas. He likes what he has seen “very much” and has so far written about twenty-five…
In my opinion, Ben isn’t training Rey here. They’re training togetherfor something.
Ben and Rey are equals. Rey doesn’t need a teacher, she needs a partner—and that’s what Ben will be for her.
Someone at the subreddit StarWarsSpeculation theorized that the unused concept art from TFA where Rey slices up a Star Destroyer from an X Wing is now being used for TRoS.
Here’s what it would look like after she slices it up,
So this makes perfect sense to me that this is what they’re training for. It explains why the lightsaber is ignited and why they would have to train because of how difficult something like this would be to pull off.
For those who do not know, Mitth’raw’nurodo, better known as Thrawn, was a Legends continuity character whom recently just made his official canon appearance on Star Wars: Rebels. There has been speculation about the infamous Imperial Grand Admiral’s return, to the big screen for the first time, in the upcoming final chapter to the Sequel Trilogy, the untitled Episode IX. Rumors suggest that casting for this character is by Richard E. Grant, gained recognition for his portrayal of the character John Steward in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.He has also appeared as the main protagonist in Logan and made an appearance in Game of Thrones.
Here is a short backstory to Thrawn-
Thrawn is a Chiss, an alien race native to the Unknown Regions that, at the time of the Imperial Era, was vast uncharted space. The Galactic Empire was highly xenophobic and was only comprised of Humans, while several alien species were either enslaved or their worlds/governments were used as puppet states holding very little or no powers at all, however, Emperor Palpatine considered Thrawn to be the only exception. Thrawn was known for his brutality that matched the Emperor’s to a certain degree and was an indirect rival of Darth Vader’s. He was a military genius who built a philosophy of understanding his enemie’s philosophies and art. He had risen through the Imperial hierarchy to the status of Grand Admiral and commanded the Seventh Fleet.
Before he dissapeared, Thrawn’s knowlege of his home system allowed the Imperial Remnants to escape into the Unknown Regions after the Battle of Jakku. To that end, it was Thrawn who made the First Order’s existance a reality.
Given that, Thrawn playing a pivotol role in the First Order’s rise to power and insuring the survival of the New Order, could he make his return in Episode IX? For those who watched Rebels, his fate was left uncertain, so it is possible his return could play an important role in the plot for IX.
