Why Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker didn't feature Force ghosts of past Jedi

Note: this article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (as if you haven't seen it already).

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker's visual effects supervisor has discussed the decision not to include Force ghosts of former Jedi heroes in the movie.

Fans who've seen JJ Abrams' latest space-opera will recall how Rey is encouraged by the voices of fallen Jedi to destroy Emperor Palpatine and restore balance in the galaxy.

If the filmmakers had chosen to approach this moment differently, they had an opportunity to feature the actors themselves, including Samuel L Jackson's Mace Windu, Liam Neeson's Qui-Gon Jinn and Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker among others.

Related: Star Wars confirms theory about Rey's new lightsaber

However, VFX artist Roger Guyett recently told Insider: "I think that in some ways to me, the voices are almost more powerful than the idea of actually visually seeing them. I think we talked about that at one stage.

"What I liked about that idea as it developed, was that you feel like you're with Rey and you're inside her head.

"Of course, it's very subjective about what may or may not feel right for that moment, but what we were trying to capture was that it was happening to her inside her head by using voices rather than physical representations of those people within that space."

Was this a missed opportunity for some mega nostalgia, or did the voices work better after all?

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is out now.

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Dan Seddon

Reporter, Digital Spy 

Dan is a freelance entertainment journalist. Beginning his writing career in 2014, Dan's work first graced the pages of cult publications Starburst magazine and Little White Lies before moving onto Total Film, Digital Spy, NME and Yahoo Entertainment. 

In the film and TV universe, he kneels at the altar of Jim Carrey, Daniel Plainview, Mike Ehrmantraut and Paulie Walnuts.