Star Wars: Dominic Monaghan on “The Rise of Skywalker”
Dominic Monaghan wears a Star Wars tattoo.
And much like many other big fans of the franchise, he can’t get enough Star Wars.
That’s especially so when he’s on-screen.
The Hollywood Reporter Spoke With The Rise of Skywalker’s Dominic Monaghan
Monaghan, who appeared in The Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as J.J. Abrams’ Lost, said there’s lots of footage on the cutting room floor.
“Like a lot of Star Wars fans, I’m hoping there will be a director’s cut so we’ll get to see more and more of the stuff that was filmed,” Monaghan explained to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I wasn’t there all the time, but even in the short time that I was there, there was so much stuff filmed that didn’t make it to the theatrical version… Oh, man, there was so much stuff!”


Monaghan played “Merry” in The Lord of the Rings.
Notice, he wasn’t weighing in on wanting an alternate version – he just wants a longer version.
“Another thing that we will hopefully see at some point in the future is that in the final battle, Connix injures her leg,” Monaghan told THR. “Obviously, myself, Rose and Connix are exiting the battle, and Rose has a weapon. While Rose is busy doing stuff, I grab Connix’s arm and put it over my shoulder to make sure that all of us come back as unscathed as possible.”
You could see that moment in the corner of your eye during the film, but it’s pretty clear, both from the pace of the film to the ancillary materials, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker could have been over three hours long.
just gonna shamelessly take this moment to mention that if the #TheRiseOfSkywalker film included everything in the novelization, it would definitely be at least 3 hours long
— Rae Carson (@raecarson) January 2, 2020
But for Monaghan, it was the quiet moments on set that made him feel the most “Star Wars.”
[T]hey left R2 in the space that we had done the previous scene because he wasn’t going to feature in the next moment. So, it was just me and R2, and no one else was around. I went over and put my hand on top of R2’s dome and just silently whispered a few sentences in my brain as a way of paying tribute to how much of an influential, positive element he was in my childhood. That was a moment of emotion that was private and intimate and something that was for me. As I walked over to the set to shoot this other scene, I had a moment of feeling quite overwhelmed and grateful.”
Dominic Monaghan
Be sure to check out this very interesting Q & A (especially if you grew up a Star Wars fan) at HollywoodReporter.com.