Lucasfilm and Disney are reportedly placing their upcoming streaming series about Obi-Wan Kenobi on hold, according to The Hollywood Reporter and Collider. The series is being “retooled” after issues with the scripts for the series arose, prompting the company to start over.
THR says that Lucasfilm is looking for a new writer to tackle the series, and that it’s looking to reduce the series order from six episodes to four. Reportedly, the series “treated similar ground as [The] Mandalorian, seeing the Jedi master lending a protective hand to a young Luke and perhaps even a young Leia,” which might have been a problem.
Despite the setback, sources tell the outlet that Ewan McGregor is still set to reprise his role as the title character, and the Deborah Chow remains attached to direct the project. It’s not clear when work on the project will begin again — Collider says that the crew assembled at Pinewood Studios have been told the project is on hold “indefinitely.”
At a press event for Birds of Prey, McGregor confirmed the delay, saying tht “I think the scripts are great. They’re in really good shape. They want them to be better. I think we can keep our same airdate,” and noted that they will likely begin shooting in the summer of 2021, rather than the summer of 2020.
For years, there had been persistent rumors that Lucasfilm was planning a standalone Obi-Wan Kenobi film, with Stephen Daldry (The Hours) slated to direct, which later morphed into the Disney+ series. However, after Solo hit theaters in 2018 to tepid reviews and an underwhelming box office, Disney pumped the brakes on the franchise, with CEO Bob Iger saying that the company would slow down its release tempo for the franchise. A rumored film about Boba Fett was axed in favor of The Mandalorian, and last year, Lucasfilm announced Obi-Wan Kenobi series for Disney + — the third in the works after a previously-announced series about Cassian Andor and K-2S0.
In the meantime, Lucasfilm is working to figure out what comes next for Star Wars in theaters. The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has something in the works, but Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss recently dropped out of their scheduled trilogy. Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige is already working on one film, while Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit, Thor: Ragnarok) is rumored to have been approached to come up with another one.
The Obi-Wan series was supposed to begin production this year, and was to have been set eight years after the events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. It seems as though Disney and Lucasfilm are still committed to the project, and it looks like we’ll just have longer to wait. Fortunately, we’ve got a second season of The Mandalorian coming later this fall.
Somehow I doubt Baby Luke dolls would’ve been as big a seller.
This ruined my day :( If they end up squandering this opportunity, I’ll kick something.
We don’t need a show about Obi Wan’s time in exile on Tattooine. Probably the dullest part of his life story. Tell the years when he was a young jedi. Like when he met Duchess Satine. Or make an Ahsoka show.
To make enough content about the time he sat in the desert they’ll have to stretch so much it will get ridiculous.
Great news! Always happy to see a company realize that quality is more important than quantity, especially where Master Kenobi is concerned. Patience!
I agree with Transceiver for once!
Note the calendar!
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d rather have it sooner than later, but not at the expense of a good story. I imagine they are probably taking the time to determine if it’s going to connect to any of the upcoming movies.
Like maybe other creatures that use the Force became aware of Luke, and tried to find him and Obi-Wan has to defend him. Expand the lore, and tie it into something that can connect to a movie set at any point in time. I am almost certain we’re going to get a movie about the Kid, set later in his life, if he is some sort of vergence in the Force, it would need to get deep into the galaxy’s history to reveal it, so I’m definitely down for some Old Republic content.
In truth that’s what I’m hoping – that they’re just taking some time to brush it up and ultimately the quality will be better.
I’m just worried that after so long, McGregor may end up not available or otherwise unable to do it.
Hot Take: Solo is actually ok. Not great, but certainly not as bad some of the other movies!
@7/ubxs113 – Solo is a wonderful movie. “Greatness” is subjective, but I’d agree it probably doesn’t rise to whatever standard of greatness one holds. Still, it is a solid story, confidently told, and enjoyable start to finish. I am sorry it didn’t do better because I’d like to see one-shot, “anthology” films become the norm for Star Wars going forward.
As for Kenobi, I, too, am OK with a delay if it means we get a good product at the end. As for when to set it, I think it has to be in between Eps III and IV given Ewan McGregor’s involvement, but I’d be all for flashbacks throughout to Obi-Wan’s being discovered and recruited as a Force-sensitive child, to his early training, to that year he and Qui-Gon spent on Mandalore (as @3/Scott suggests). Intercut all that with some adventure that takes Obi-Wan off Tatooine temporarily for some urgent, covert reason… I think you could have a solid limited series.
I also agree with the Solo assessment – I heartily enjoyed that movie.
As to Kenobi – this was the one series I was looking forward to! But will be willing to wait if it means we’ll get a better show.
@7 – Totally agree! Solo is a wonderful romp and gave me exactly what I want from a Star Wars movie. I’d say Solo, Rogue One, and The Mandalorian are the best things Lucasfilm have done since Dinsey took over. The sequels are enjoyable, and gave us some interesting ideas/visuals but as a whole, I found them to be fairly flawed films. I’d take the anthology films over the sequel trilogy any day ESPECIALLY if they were of the caliber of Rogue One.
Agreed. I’d rather have a good Kenobi show later than a mediocre one sooner.
Also, “Solo” is a pretty good movie. The only thing I honestly HATED was how now his last name was made up by the Imperial Recruiting Officer because Han “had no people” so he was “solo.” That was insultingly dumb and cringy.
I really liked Solo, and I find that I enjoy it even more on rewatch. I liked seeing the different side of things. Most of the characters were fun/interesting (although I do feel Val was criminally underused), and when I did a big saga rewatch (which included Solo/Rogue One) – it honestly was NOT hard to see the blustery but ultimately good-hearted screw up in Solo develop into the scoundrel we see in the original trilogy, and the guy in the sequel trilogy who tries to stay away but can’t. Lando and L3 were great, I liked the little tie ins to both the Clone Wars series and the nascent Rebellion too. Totally agreed on the Imperial officer naming Han though. It’s kind of like how Rogue One pretty much completely worked for me, except for the part where they run into Ponda Baba and Dr. Evazan on Jedha which was a bit of fan service that went too far.
That said, this is still one of my favorite takes on it (and totally rips on the ‘Solo’ name origin hilariously), because I’ll always share Auralnauts content. Kylo Ren Reviews Solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_lU_GRsZbM
(Their ‘Kylo Ren Reviews Rogue One’ is also hysterical. Everything on that channel is hysterical).
Rogue One is probably still my favorite Disney-era movie though, and I love Mandalorian. The sequel films I still have a deeply conflicted relationship with but I for one am hoping they continue to focus on side story stuff (whether it’s TV or movies).
@5/Aeryl –
The Journal of Obi Wan Kenobi comics are really enjoyable. In the flagship Marvel Star Wars comic series, Luke returns to Tatooine and finds Obi Wan’s journal in his hut. The journal entries are presented as a series of 4 or 5 issues which focus on the same time period as the TV series. I’d imagine they’re pretty close in content to these initial scripts they’re going to rework, and as such, I can understand how a series might feel repetitive very quickly.
I think it would be interesting if Kenobi was a liability, attracting unnecessary attention to himself and the moisture farming community he is protecting. The conflict could escalate to the point that a brutal and strategically minded fixer attacks a series of targets specifically to lure Obi Wan out. The fixer could be a Black Sun operative, and the criminal agency could be attempting a quiet overthrow of Jabba’s enterprise on Tatooine, beginning with strategic land grabs. Obi Wan could find himself in the middle of a war which the locals are entirely unaware of, and depending on the spin, he could come out of it being despised. He could even side with Jabba for a time.
It would also be interesting to see him torn between remaining on Tatooine, and traveling elsewhere in response to a call to action. He could be waylaid for a number of years, fearing the worst for Luke, only to return to a largely unchanged Tatooine on which the boy was thriving despite the odds. Realizing his presence in early years had potentially done more harm than good, Obi Wan would retreat into almost total seclusion, where he would meditate on his place in the universe and become the crazy old wizard legend as seen in A New Hope. That sort of treatment could put a tight focus on Obi Wan’s tendency to walk the line between the philosophies of action and inaction.
I would honestly say I think Solo is my favorite Star Wars movie. It opens up the galaxy in a way that none of the other movies does and I think its a shame that they probably won’t get the opportunity for that cast to do that again. Especially sad considering Donald Glover is fantastic as Lando.
I loved Solo. My only two complaints are a.) it was shot way too dark, and b.) they should have left Maul out. Apart from that, I think it’s a wonderful film.
I will wait for a better Obi Wan show. I would prefer to see untold side adventures rather than young Luke, which could turn out as cringeworthy as young Anakin (“Yipee!”).
And count me among those who would like to see more of Donald Glover’s Lando. And live-action Ahsoka, for that matter.
I second (or 10th) the love for Solo. It’s a great little film that captures the imagination and the essence of Star Wars, just like all of the anthology material. We’re not alone either – the anthology as a whole is a close second to the original trilogy in terms of critical and audience response, as seen in the data complied below:
(source: Rotten Tomatoes – 1/22/2020)
Huh, that’s interesting. I would have thought Revenge of the Sith at least would have a higher fan rating simply because (and this is purely anecdotal and probably slightly skewed by the company I keep) even people I know who don’t really care for the prequels still enjoy it.
The TLJ/RoS flip flop between critics and fans is somewhat amusing.
Rotten Tomatoes literally had to change their audience rating system because of vote-bombing of TLJ and Captain Marvel. Trolls created thousands of accounts to bring down the audience scores. Those numbers are even more meaningless than most RT audience scores.
@19 Jere7my
Interestingly, audience reviews of TLJ are still being posted to rottentomatoes on a daily basis, and a cursory view suggests they’re as divided as ever 2 years later, suggesting that the complaints, however poorly phrased or offensive they may often be, are not as easily dismissed as the work of trolls. I considered taking a closer look at the data for that film, both eliminating certified critical reviews from minor blogs, and eliminating the negative audience reviews that lack any substance, and were therefore the obvious work of a troll. Ultimately, that would be a lot of work just to round out the reviews of a very flawed film by maybe, 15%, and continued reviews should round it out naturally, if the film is as good as critics say. At any rate, remove that negative audience score from the equation, and the sequel trilogy would stay at the same place in overall rankings.
@20: There is still an active troll group dedicated to tanking the TLJ audience score. I did do the analysis you considered doing, about a year ago; 95% of the one-star reviews for TLJ were brand-new accounts that had never gone on to review anything else. Your guesstimate of 15% has no basis in the data; legitimate polling from other sources has shown an 89% audience approval for TLJ, and if you eliminated the one-star ratings from single-purpose accounts it would sit at 85% on RT.
Your premise is that the #1 film of 2017 and the #2 blu-ray of 2018 (selling nearly as many discs as Infinity War) “should” have an audience score that’s ten points below “The Incredible Hulk” instead of 25 points below? No; RT audience scores are garbage, and you can draw no useful data from them.
@21 Jere7my
I’m interested in gathering more data relating to the entire saga. Care to share any links to the other sources of legitimate polling you referenced?
Cinemascore (A-) and the Mashable poll (89%) are the only two statistically valid polls of TLJ reception we have.
Rotten Tomatoes is an opt-in poll that has no controls against people voting multiple times and no mechanism for obtaining a representative sample. Even if everyone who voted was an audience member who only voted once, the data would still skew toward the kind of people who feel the need to leave their opinions online — i.e., young, white men — and the audience scores reflect that. (Children, for instance, don’t vote on RT.) Those numbers literally tell you nothing about what audiences think.
The best illustration I’ve seen of why opt-in polls are meaningless was a business poll on Twitter that asked “We support lefties with our left-handed supplies! Are you a lefty?” 28% of people responded “Yep, lefty and proud!” despite the fact that only 10% of the population is left-handed. Because of the way the question was phrased, they got disproportionate engagement from that 10%, and data that tells us a lie. Never pay attention to opt-in polling; it’s not data, it’s a game.
@23
You bring up an interesting point – Cinemascores is concerned with quantifying surface entertainment value and box-office potential, and as a result, the data they collect in any given season is overwhelmingly skewed positively, with more A’s and B’s given than any other grade. Star Wars as a whole was built to entertain and it succeeds at that. Ultimately, people (myself included) take it more seriously than the material takes itself, and try to ascribe more meaning than intended. When a work falls short of these perceived artistic or spiritual intentions, or directly contradicts them or plain logic, it can result in a distortion of public opinion.
However, as George Lucas said “I’ve always tried to be aware of what I say in my films, because all of us who make motion pictures are teachers — teachers with very loud voices.” While I think TLJ presents positive messages about women, it also presents some very odd messages regarding embracing moral ambiguity (as evidenced by the numbers of reviewers who are disappointed by the lack of a “grey jedi” ending in Rise of Skywalker). Finally, it presents a cast of thoroughly flawed male characters in such a way that I can see why it angered manchildren and incels – I’m all for society making an effort to correct their behavior, but I’ve never seen a successful intervention that leaves the subject feeling attacked, and so, I have to question the delivery. I tend to think of entertainment as both a mirror on society, and as packaged content which can have a positive or negative effect on society, and I wonder which effect TLJ ultimately has.
Tangential but I’m so glad they didn’t do ‘grey Jedi’. I’m not at all saying the Jedi can’t use some nuance/balance, especially as it relates to emotion and attachment or even passion (or be portrayed as struggling with flaws), nor am I against the idea of the Force broadening beyond Jedi and Sith that have different approaches, but I feel like ‘grey Jedi’ is always basically an excuse to have your Jedi have badass Dark side powers because they’re badass.
The frustration I feel with the ‘but balance means both Light and Dark!’ is very similar to the frustration surrounding ‘both sides!’ equivocation.
(And for the record, I did not get the impression TLJ was advocating for grey Jedi either).
I don’t want to get into this argument again, but divisive as it was (and yes, I also wanted a different Luke Skywalker, and that’s true for TFA as well) but there is a difference between attacking toxic masculinity and attacking men. And even a difference between that and showing…flawed male characters. Since the movie is particularly about deconstructing legacy and flawed heroes and the main character of the previous trilogy was male…well, yeah, it’s gonna be a flawed male character. But then again I come on the ‘both Holdo and Poe are annoying’ side of that part of the debate so I didn’t see that as particularly gendered either. :)
Plus by the end of the movie I feel like they all learn their lessons so are they really ‘thoroughly’ flawed? Aside from Kylo, that is ;)
To talk about the main topic, I’m glad they are slow walking this. I really enjoyed The Mandalorian and I liked Solo but I almost feel like it would have been a better movie if it had been able to put even more distance from the OT characters and just made a movie about Lando, or about someone entirely new set in the Star Wars galaxy.
I liked The Last Jedi but the plot was deeply flawed. Almost as bad as parts of episodes 1-3. This blogger (https://acoup.blog/2019/12/29/miscellanea-the-latest-jedi/) did a good job of pointing out the major flaws I noticed during my watch. The biggest flaws are that the entire military and political situation they are in during that movie does not make sense. Also, the entire point they are trying to make with the Poe vs. Holden conflict is undermined by the fact that Poe’s choices at the start of the film are actually the right call given what we know about the situation, and that the Admiral’s decisions (up until the very end) are inept and borderline incompetent.
There are also a number of problems with the way that they filmed the character (like the fact that she’s the only one wearing stupid robes instead of a uniform) that make it hard to take her seriously. All of this was entirely a writer / director problem that should have been fixed and wasn’t. And that’s not even including the weird casino heist thing that was thrown in there as a “fix” for the entire militiary/political situation that didn’t make sense and shouldn’t have happened to begin with. That plot line was still entertaining, but was so unconnected that it was almost a separate movie.
I wasn’t as frustrated with the Jedi training stuff as some people, but that entire hokey religion and mysticism has never made much sense to me to begin with, so I guess I’m not as invested.
undermined by the fact that Poe’s choices at the start of the film are actually the right call given what we know about the situation
That’s an audience problem, not a plot problem. “Given what we know”. WE don’t know everything. Poe doesn’t know everything. The only person in this scenario who has more information is Holdo. These factors make Poe’s choices understandable, but that doesn’t make him right.
Admiral’s decisions (up until the very end) are inept and borderline incompetent.
Her decision to evacuate the Resistance to a more secure base would have worked out fine if Poe hadn’t leaked the details of their classified plans over an unsecured communication line to a compromised agent willing to sell out to the FO at the first opportunity. It was Poe’s incompetency that saw 3/4 of the remaining Resistance blown up in space en route to Crait, not Holdo’s. It’s almost like the plot was showing she was correct that he shouldn’t have been included in the Need To Know hierarchy, because he didn’t know how to shut up and follow orders.
that she’s the only one wearing stupid robes instead of a uniform
Leia is also wearing robes. Holdo and Leia are wearing Alderaanian mourning attire, in honor of Han Solo.
@26 & 27
Seeing as Tor is a site dedicated to writing and literary critique, let’s explore TLJ’s plot by comparing it to moderately adjusted path the film could have taken:
——- ACT I ———
We start with Luke and Rey. Luke is teaching Rey, but is avoiding combat training, much to Rey’s disappointment as she believes she must be prepared to best Kylo in battle. We learn that Luke is in hiding because he refuses to fight Ben again, knowing that he tried to bring him back once, nearly killed Ben, and only drove him further to the dark side in the process. He encourages Rey to find another way – one that doesn’t involve fighting. He is still remorseful, depressed, and refuses the call to action, but he isn’t a nihilist or Jedi apologist.
We change scenes to the Resistance’s planetary escape as it happens in the film. The Resistance fleet jumps into hyperspace with the New Order tracing them. Rose captures Finn trying to jump ship. The main chase scene ensues, with the New Order menacingly following at a decent distance through a few hyperspace jumps, but not releasing TIEs – Snoke knows that the Resistance will soon run out of options, and he has forseen that Luke and Rey will be lured to the rescue, allowing Snoke the opportunity to quash the entire Resistance at once. Leia isn’t incapacitated (the loss of consciousness trope was only included to spark the muddled Holdo vs. Poe thread), instead she consults with her senior staff, as good leaders do in times of crisis, and they realize the New Order can track them. The low fuel trope is not employed, but it is stated that the Resistance can’t just do this forever.
Finn and Rose offer the option of boarding the lead New Order ship and disabling the tracker, as they do in the film. It is decided that they will board directly (with no slicer needed to bypass the shields or open the door to the room containing the tracker – that’s really all the master hacker job was – opening a shield and a door, and that doesn’t require an offsite heist movie recruitment scene Casino C plot that bifurcates and disrupts the building narrative momentum). Leia has a couple of ideas – one, the fleet will split in two, with Holdo taking one command ship, and Leia taking another – the New Order can’t effectively track two fleets, and the Resistance is guaranteed to survive with this plan. Two, one of Han’s old tricks – floating out with the trash and inessential materials that the Resistance could conceivably dump to try to lighten their load and keep their distance from the New Order ships. (This is an actual tactical plan in the vein of Star Wars. Running away in a straight line for over an hour of the film while your fleet is slowly picked off is not. This also lends Leia and the film a tangible sense of military command.)
Finn and Rose will float out in an escape pod with a couple of commandos, and Poe and Black Squadron will blitz the main ship, forcing it to lower its shields long enough to launch a TIE wing, at which point Finn and Rose will be able to manoeuver close to the hull and couple with a janitorial access bay unnoticed. When they couple and board, Holdo’s ship will jump to hyperspace, and Leia’s will remain to collect the x-wings and keep Kylo’s attention – Kylo can feel Leia’s presence, so he won’t chase Holdo. Leia tells Finn & Rose it’s likely a suicide mission, and that it’ll be up to them to disable the tracker, escape, and reunite with the Resistance – they can’t have knowledge of where the Resistance is heading, because they might be captured, and the remaining fleet will have to jump to lightspeed as soon as the tracker is disabled. The plan works. Rose uses her pendant to access the tracker room, they disable the device and the fleet escapes, but she and Finn are captured, and tortured, then thrown in the brig alongside DJ. (This effectively ends the chase scene instead of allowing it to drag on for the majority of the film. It is almost inconceivable that the A plot of this film is a slow speed chase scene that required a weightless mutiny thread to begin to legitimize its inclusion.)
——- ACT II ———
Back on Ahch-to, Rey has her force cave experience, and her force communions with Kylo, during which she finds the “other way” Luke insisted she seek out – she has seen that Kylo will turn to the light side if she goes to him, and that he is waiting for her aboard the lead New Order ship. Frustrated with Luke’s unwillingness to accompany her, but also knowing that he was not present in her force vision, Rey decides she has learned all that Luke is willing to teach her and that she is ready to leave. Knowing that Chewbacca can’t go with her on this mission, she takes Luke’s X-wing and gives Chewy the transponder that will take him back to the Resistance. She tells Luke that it’s never too late to come back home, which strikes a deep chord in him.
The two groups of the Resistance fleet reconvene at Krait, and Poe escorts a flagship on a brief mission to resupply with weapons. Holdo could deliver her “I like him” line of Poe to Leia, without Poe having just committed mutiny. The mission doesn’t feel quite right, but Poe can’t place what’s bothering him about the interaction.
DJ Helps Finn & Rose escape their cell. While roaming the ship in search of escape, they come across weapons crates and learn that the same weapons supplier supports both the New Order and the Resistance – this detail is actually set up in the Visual Dictionary for The Force Awakens. Rose shares her backstory, as seen in the film.
Rey drops out of hyperspace and Kylo allows her to dock. He escorts her to meet Snoke, and she learns that Snoke now knows where the Resistance base is located – the weapons supplier, which profits from war, has tracked the Resistance to its base under the guise of a recent resupplying mission and has given coordinates to the New Order. (This is a much more sensible and cohesive betrayal than the “these transports which are visible to the naked eye, and which are certainly visible to your advanced sensors are secretly escaping to the planet surface” nonsense that DJ delivers in the film)
The New Order fleet heads to Krait. Rose and Finn encounter Phasma rallying her troops in advance of a battle on a backwater planet called Krait. They sneak away to broadcast a warning to the Resistance. DJ says they’re crazy, if they stick with him, he can get them on a ship, slice through the shields and escape. They insist on staying, and say that the Resistance might need them to disable the tracking device again. Finn is done running. DJ gives his “Don’t Join” speech and disappears to fend for himself.
——- ACT III ———
Finn and Rose get their message through, and the Resistance fleet is able to make orbit above Krait before the New Order arrives. A space battle ensues with the Resistance taking heavy casualties. Kylo kills Snoke in the throne room as seen in the film. The Resistance fleet is decimated to two flagships, and the New Order tracking device is now active again. Kylo and Rey fight – Rey wins, and Kylo is incapacitated as seen in the film.
Finn and Rose encounter Phasma. Finn is ready to fight, but Rose shoots the panel on the blast door that is between them and Phasma, ending the fight. She gives her “we don’t win by fighting what we hate” line, and encourages him to continue on their mission to disable the tracker. (That line is far more poignant when delivered in the face of Finn’s nemesis than it is in the face of a laser battering ram, as seen in the film)
Just then, Holdo says her goodbyes and sacrifices herself by hyperspace jumping into the New Order ship, thereby disabling the tracker. In the destruction montage, Phasma is seen consumed by the energy release – Finn and Rose would have died if they had stayed to fight her. Hux finds Kylo in the throne room, and the two move to evacuate the ship as seen in the film. Rey, also attempting to escape the crumbling ship, senses Finn and reunites with him and Rose, but they are out of luck and time. They despair for a moment, but Rose remembers that they had coupled an escape pod to the ship via the janitorial bay earlier – maybe the pod is still there! It is! They jettison as the New Order flagship explodes, only to see Leia’s flagship escape via hyperspace. Things look grim – countless New Order forces remain and they are all alone. Rey prays to the cosmic force. (How did she get back on the Falcon in the movie? And what took her so long to make the descent to Krait’s surface?)
Suddenly, The Millenium falcon, having been tracking Leia’s transponder to these coordinates, emerges from hyperspace in the middle of the action. Luke and Chewy look startled and confused – where is the resistance? “So glad I came back – really missed this,” Luke says sarcastically. “There!” Luke says, sensing Rey in the escape pod. The Falcon docks with the pod, Luke collects the passengers, Chewy realigns the transponder, and they jump to hyperspace behind Leia. Rey and Kylo share a final force communion. Luke grins as he toys with the training remote and blast helmet he trained with so long ago, and Rey approaches him, smiling. Roll credits.
—— END——
That’s a much more streamlined and less clunky take in my opinion. It still says everything Rian was trying to say. Everyone’s actions actually achieve something. You could remix it a little and still allow Luke his self sacrifice, but then, he could have made that in the next film. (If he were given his sacrifice in the above interpretation, Luke could appear via astral projection in multiple places throughout the final battle – first on Leia’s ship, and then in the New Order flagship throne room to confront Kylo, allowing Rey, Finn & Rose to escape. He would be able to deliver the same lines as he does in the film. At the end of the fight, we would see him levitating either on Ahch-to, or in the lounge of the Falcon in hyperspace – either way, he would fade into the force, and Chewie and R2 could deal with coupling to the escape pod in his stead).
If you think that version says everything Rian was trying to say, you have no idea what Rian was trying to say.