Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Flashback Training Scene Was a 'Huge Puzzle', Says VFX Supervisor

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker featured flashback scenes that explain bits and pieces to understand the whole narrative of the Skywalker Saga. For the final installment, a scene of the Young Leia and Luke in training was featured, a key moment that required tons of work by the VFX team, but not without its challenges.

"Pretty much every Carrie face that you see in the movie, it's really her taken from another movie," ILM visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett told Discussing Film. "When we get the legacy thing and I think even Rogue One had the same problem, there is actually very little footage available to you from the older movies that has not been seen before."

Guyett pointed out that George Lucas was "very much run and gun" in filming before, he didn't do a lot of takes or shoot other parts that aren't in the movie. "It's fascinating to go back and look at all the outtakes and footage that hasn't been used," he said. "The other problem, of course, is that this was a long time ago. So, a lot of it was lost."

In general, they were limited in footage of both Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill. "We had to literally design that shot where you see them lift up their helmets after fighting in the jungle around two images," Guyett explained. "I think we literally had the choice of maybe one or two choices." Though it was limited, Guyett thought that it was "fascinating" as well.

The scene was designed around the perspective and lighting of those footage, so finding one interior shot for one character requires another for the other character. "It really made it a kind of huge puzzle to solve," Guyett admitted. "It is hundreds and hundreds of hours spent going through material and trying to find moments that you think might work for the movie."

Eventually, the hard work paid off because the flashback training scene was one of the most memorable and surprising parts of the movie, and really added that nostalgia factor for the longtime fans.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now available on 4K, Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital-HD.

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