How A Star Wars Script Almost Got Sold On eBay
In what would've been a security breach on the level of those Death Star plans falling into the hands of the Rebel Alliance, it seems that a legit screenplay from J.J. Abrams' saga-closing Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker almost made it out into the world over a month before the film's release.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Abrams himself was the first to break the news of the shocking snafu when he stopped by Good Morning America this week to promote the upcoming release of Rise of Skywalker. As one would expect, secrecy surrounding the new film's plot has been beyond airtight. As such, Star Wars fans the world over were left with mouths agape when Abrams let slip to GMA host George Stephanopoulos that the movie's closely-guarded secrets were almost spilled in spectacularly boneheaded fashion by one of the film's primary cast members.
"One of our actors, I won't say which one — I want to, but I won't — left it under their bed, and it was found by someone who was cleaning their place," Abrams said. "It was given to someone else, who then went to sell it on eBay."
To hear Abrams tell it, a stroke of dumb luck may have been the only thing that saved legions of Star Wars die-hards from having the entire film spoiled for them, as he noted that "someone in [Disney]" somehow stumbled upon the eBay listing and alerted higher ups that it "looked like a legit script."
Luckily, Disney took swift action, sending their mouse-eared police (look, we can pretend they exist) to recover the lost Rise of Skywalker script before it sold, ensuring that some of the biggest unanswered questions in the Star Wars universe will remain under wraps until the film hits theaters. Luckily for the most absent-minded actor in Hollywood (whose identity Abrams so nobly declined to disclose), the potentially ruinous gaffe was narrowly avoided.
In a head-slapping addendum to Abrams' tale, it appears that the eBay seller had absolutely no idea what sort of gold mine they were sitting on, and had listed their ill-gotten, near-priceless stolen item for a paltry 65 pounds (about $84 in U.S. currency). Imagine their surprise when lawyers for Disney — which also owns Marvel and Pixar, and could probably just go ahead and print their own currency at this point — showed up at their door with a bunch of legal documents and stern words.
Here's who that Star Wars script belonged to
The saga of the lost screenplay didn't end with Abrams' GMA appearance. Though the kind-hearted writer/director behind the final chapter of the Skywalker Saga refused to out the actor who misplaced the screenplay, the actor helpfully stopped by GMA later in the week to out himself.
The actor in question: none other than John Boyega, who portrays former Stormtrooper-turned-Rebel stalwart Finn in the prequel trilogy. As it happened, it didn't take much prompting from host Michael Strahan to get the star to fess up to his part in the unthinkable mishap. Though Boyega initially tried to play coy, he quickly relented by offering a bold, "It was me." He then went on to tell viewers that the boneheaded maneuver went down while he was moving, and... after a night of partying with his mates.
"I was moving apartments, and I left the script under my bed. I was like, I'll leave it under my bed and when I wake up the next morning, I'll take it and then move. But then my boys came over, and we started partying a little bit. And the script, it just stayed there. And a few weeks after, this cleaner comes in, finds this script and puts it on eBay for like 65 pounds."
Perhaps more surprising than Boyega's unimaginable gaffe, or the seller's bargain basement pricing, is the fact that the actor's Rise of Skywalker script was apparently in the wind — or rather under the bed — for a "few weeks" with nobody even realizing it was missing. Don't get us wrong, we know that Boyega is a very busy man these days, but come on; it's the screenplay for one of the most hotly-anticipated movies in the history of cinema. Something like that really shouldn't leave one's sight, and if you can't keep track of it yourself, you perhaps should think about hiring an armed guard to watch over it until it doesn't have to be in your possession anymore.
Though he was trying to have a good time on GMA while explaining his role in the narrowly-avoided crisis, Boyega was clearly still quite embarrassed about it, eventually even professing how scary the entire ordeal was. "It was scary, I got calls from every official," he said. "Even Mickey Mouse called me, 'What did you do?!'"
Okay, that's pretty funny. While there's little doubt that Abrams and the rest of Boyega's Disney bosses (including Mickey) were more than a little bit peeved at his blunder, it seems that everything has worked out for the best, with Rise of Skywalker's plot still safely under lock and key. Of course, this also means that we're going to have to wait a little bit longer to find out some of the more burning questions surrounding the flick — like who Rey's parents really are, how Emperor Palpatine is making his ominous return to the story, and whether or not Kylo will share another uncomfortable scene without a shirt. The good news is that all will soon be revealed when the movie hits the big screen on December 20. Here's hoping Abrams and the Star Wars team can keep a lid on things until then.