One of the more fun and exciting parts of any new Star Wars experience is seeing what exotic places the characters get off to. While the planets of Star Wars tend to consist of a single environment, which is already very unlike the world we know, we still get to see a lot of interesting places. We also see a lot of desert planets, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was no exception.
After first being introduced to Tatooine, and then Jakku, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker gave us Pasaana, another planet that was basically nothing but sand and rock. It seems most of the galaxy far, far, away must be desert planets, but we almost got something very different out of Pasaana, as concept art just released shows off a Pasaana that couldn't be more different, as it was covered in water. Check it out.
Phil Saunders is an artist who has done concept art work for everything from Tron: Legacy to John Carter to several entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He also worked on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and he dropped this image on Instagram that he describes as a "wetland pirate planet." The image is of the speeder chase scene that we did get in the film, but this one would have seen the heroes skimming atop the water, weaving through cargo ships, before escaping into a mangrove forest.
Certainly, the design of this planet changed in a big way during preproduction, shifting from a wetland world to a desert one. It certainly would have been cool to see this version of Pasaana, as it would have been something we hadn't yet seen in a Star Wars movie. Perhaps creating the water world would have been too difficult or expensive. Or perhaps, because we were going to be dealing with a lot of water later in Rise of Skywalker, it was decided that Pasaana needed to contrast more with the Death Star wreck location.
Of course, just because we didn't get to see this wetland world in Rise of Skywalker doesn't mean we'll never get to see it. While the future of Star Wars on the big screen is a big mystery right now, we know there will be new movies at some point and we could certainly see this idea reused in some fashion in the future. We were once going to see the Wookiee planet in Return of the Jedi, and while that changed, we eventually did see that in a later film. Great ideas don't get forgotten in Star Wars, and so perhaps this one will come back around at the right time.
And maybe we could give the desert planets a rest. There have been as many of them as there have been Death Stars, and a little variety in both biomes and superweapons in Star Wars would be appreciated.
