Artist Doug Chiang has shared a piece of previously unseen concept art from The Force Awakens. The art in question features the iconic Death Star 2 rising from the sands of the Jakku desert. Chiang currently serves as the vice president and executive creative director of Lucasfilm and he posted the Star Wars concept art on social media. The Death Star has been teased many times in the latest trilogy and it looks like The Rise of Skywalker is already delivering the goods, or at least the wreckage.
Doug Chiang's artwork picturing the Death Star rising out of Jakku is pretty amazing and hardcore Star Wars fans will more than likely love the imagery. However, the scene in question never made it to J.J. Abrams' final cut of the story, though it would have been awesome to see. With that being said, Chiang's artwork shows what could have been in a very detailed way. He had this to say about it.
"Death Star ascending! In the early days of EP7, we explored some wild concepts (before we had a script). This was for a dream sequence of the Death Star 2 rising out of the desert of Jakku."
Including the Death Star in the latest Star Wars trilogy is something that J.J. Abrams has played around with. He originally wanted to have a vision of the second planet killer submerged under water, but later abandoned the idea. Abrams is back to direct the final installment in the latest trilogy, which is also the final movie in the Skywalker saga, and he is bringing the Death Star back, though it looks like it has seen some better days.
We have seen images of the Death Star 2 ruins in The Rise of Skywalker trailer, but it is unclear where the wreckage is located at this time. With so much being teased in the trailer, Star Wars fans are trying to figure how it will all tie together, especially with Emperor Palpatine back. Will the wreckage of the Death Star share some knowledge about possibly taking down the First Order? For now, that is unclear, but there has to be a good reason for going to seek out the Imperial weapon after all of these years.
Related: Watch Mark Hamill & Harrison Ford's First-Ever Star Wars Screen Test
The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters at the end of this year and there is still a lot that we do not know. J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm are doing a really great job of keeping everything under wraps at the moment, though there have been some pretty big leaks over the past few months. As for the Death Star making a full comeback, it looks like it was always an idea early on for Abrams and crew, but it never got off of the ground. You can check out The Force Awakens concept art below, thanks to Doug Chiang's Instagram account.