Explaining 'The Rise of Skywalker' Opening Scene

With a lot on its place in terms of wrapping up a trilogy, Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker doesn't waste any time in its opening sequence. The iconic rolling yellow text is more concise than ever, laying out the premise of the movie's first act: Emperor Palpatine is back , and Kylo Ren is pissed about it.

We cut immediately to an unnamed red planet, where Ren mercilessly cuts his way through a group of masked strangers on his way to find the Sith wayfinder, a futuristic pyramid GPS that will guide him to Exegol, where Palpatine is hiding. That red world is never shown again, and for the purposes it serves to the story, it hardly needs a name or backstory but this is Star Wars we're talking about, so of course it does!

It turns out, the planet is called Mustafar, and this isn't the first time it has appeared in the Skywalker Saga. In fact, it was the setting for one of the most pivotal moments in the history of all nine movies: the battle between friends-turned-enemies Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi way back in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. It was their duel, surrounded by a hellish, lava-spouting landscape, that sealed Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader and formally set the events of the original trilogy in motion.

In fact, Mustafar held such significance to Vader that he later built a castle there: it is seen in the standalone prequel Rogue One.

The tie-in book Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary by Pablo Hidalgo expands on the brief scene, explaining that the people in masks are aliens known as the Alazmec, cultists who traveled to Mustafar in pilgrimage, seeking the same power that corrupted Vader.

"Kylo soon outpaces his stormtrooper escorts as he cuts a swath of destruction through the Alazmec who attempt to block his path to Vaders castle or rather, its crumbling ruins," Hidalgo writes. "Kylo enters the castle grounds with purpose, and finds an ark containing an artifact that will lead him to answers."

And those trees? They're a bizarre form of flora known as "irontrees." And if you don't remember seeing them in Revenge of the Sith, Hidalog explains that it's because the Alazmec planted them "in a futile attempt to reinvigorate the glen that covered the land centuries earlier."