Warning: Mild spoilers for Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.

Okay, so everyone’s been blowing up social media about Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker and how inadequate it was for about the last month. I won’t bore you with another review, but I will give some thoughts on a missed opportunity Disney had. 

Yeah, we all know by now that Episode VIII: The Last Jedi was pretty much a mediocre waste of two hours and the plot didn’t really accomplish anything plot-wise. Because of this, it seemed like Episode IX’s plot was extremely rushed and very little of the story could be explained. The movie was given no opportunity to “breathe.” This is where the missed opportunity comes in. Episode IX could have been split into two movies which better explored the new characters (like Poe’s ex or the rogue company of Stormtroopers), gave Rose more screen time (which everyone complained about), and actually explained how the emperor was able to amass this secret fleet of retro star destroyers with Death Star guns.  

Splitting Episode IX would have rounded out the series at ten entries and splitting the final movie of a franchise has been en vogue for the last decade. Harry Potter, Twilight, and Hunger games all did it and the fans ate it up.  Even better, they could have kept the split a surprise until release day. Double the movie, double the profits!

The perfect spot to have ended the movie on a cliffhanger would have been when Rey discovered she had force lighting abilities and believed she had killed Chewie on the prisoner transport. Credits start rolling with “TO BE CONCLUDED!” That would have been as big of an “Oh Crap!” moment as “Luke, I am your father!” It just really boggles my mind how some of the decisions made for the latter two films of the sequel trilogy were deemed okay during pre-production.