Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker concept art has unlikely ties to Solo and The Mandalorian

(Image credit: Lucasfilm)

It’s not often that we get to peek behind the curtain at the creative design process in a galaxy far, far away but this piece of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker concept art gives us exactly that – while also connecting to two Star Wars spin-offs.

Concept designer Jake Lunt Davies shared artwork on Instagram, revealing three (presumably) background characters that didn’t make the cut.

More interesting than Episode 9 seemingly almost featuring a girl gang lounging around on a speeder is the fact that they each have connections to either the sequel and prequel trilogies, Solo, or The Mandalorian.

“The girl on the left was an alien I did for the casino in The Last Jedi and the centre girl was also a species for TLJ as well as making appearances in Solo and the Mandalorian. And a Twi’Lek in the right,” Davies said.

Whether you liked Rise of Skywalker or not, the relative lack of new alien species was a black mark against a franchise that so often embraced weird and wonderful character designs. It’s heartening to see they found homes on-screen elsewhere.

It’s not clear that the character that appeared in both Solo and Mando was the same character – most likely not unless Lucasfilm has been playing the super-long game with the most minor of minor aliens – but it’s nice to see that this sort of world-building still goes on behind the scenes.

Bradley Russell

I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.