Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker novel reveals a deleted scene that sees Kylo Ren meeting "The Oracle"

Before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker reached cinemas, reports circulated that the movie would be 155 minutes in length. When the final movie arrived, though, the runtime retracted to 141 minutes. What was left on the cutting room floor? Will we ever see those missing 14 minutes?

Thanks to an abstract from the upcoming Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker novelisation, we now know one scene that was left behind. StarWars.com has debuted an exclusive book extract which expands the opening scene of the movie and adds some much-needed context. 

First, quickly think back to The Rise of Skywalker. Episode 9 opens with Kylo Ren killing some mysterious hooded creatures on a scorched planet, all to pick up a Wayfinder – an object that reveals the location of Emperor Palpatine. 

An art book, released alongside the movie, unveiled that the planet was Mustafa, where Darth Vader once resided in his haunting castle (seen in Rogue One). There were also rumours – and concept art – that claimed Kylo was originally going to meet a creature nicknamed "The Oracle". Turns out, those rumours were indeed true, as the spidery giant named The Eye of Webbish Bog appears in the novel.

The scene starts with General Armitage Hux and Allegiant General Pryde watching on as Kylo rips through the Vader cultists in search of the Wayfinder. Kylo eventually finds himself walking through a burnt forest, and the following Stormtroopers decide not to follow their Supreme Leader. There, Kylo senses someone. 

"The trees broke open onto a small lake with brackish water, bordered on all sides by forest and large black lumps like boulders, jutting out of the ground at odd angles," the novel reads. "No, not boulders, he noted upon closer look, but rather fallen remnants of Darth Vader’s cas­tle."

From that lake, The Eye of Webbish Bog – a "hairless creature sheening with wetness, bits of lake detritus clinging to its pasty skin" – emerges and greats Kylo. Soon enough, the creature hands over the Wayfinder and Kylo heads out to the Unknown Region in search of the Sith planet Exegol. You can read the full extract on the Star Wars website, and you can check out alleged concept art below.

What other treasures will the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker novelisation hold? The book reaches shelves March 17. In other Star Wars news, Harrison Ford recently spoke about his appearance in The Rise of Skywalker and admitted to not knowing what a Force Ghost is. 

Fancy rewatching the Star Wars movies? Here's how to watch the Star Wars movies in order and here's the Star Wars timeline to help you out.