Does Zorri Bliss hold the key to Palpatine's army in 'Rise of Skywalker'?

It wouldn’t be a Star Wars movie without a mysterious object that somebody wants or needs. From the Death Star plans to the map to Luke Skywalker, the saga is replete with MacGuffins, those objects that secretly drive the plot of an adventure story, but only film nerds really care about. Now, a new photo from The Rise of Skywalker shows Zorri Bliss holding a weird gold disc. This is either a huge MacGuffin, or maybe just a playlist of old-school party bangers she made for Poe Dameron. What could this disc be? Let’s get into it.

On Wednesday, Entertainment Weekly released a new photo of Zorri Bliss holds this round metal object. Since we know almost nothing about Zorri (she’s old friends with Poe, she’s kind of a smuggler, she maybe flies a Y-Wing) almost anything featuring this character is interesting. So, what is she holding? And how will it impact the plot of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.? Here are four ideas.

Speculative spoilers for Rise of Skywalker ahead.

4. It’s a Holocron

The comic series Dark Empire introduced Jedi Holocrons, an ancient way of storing information via holographic recordings. Since Dark Empire, Holocrons became real Star Wars canon, and both Jedi and Sith Holocrons were a big deal both The Clone Wars and Rebels. In The Last Jedi, Rey snagged some ancient Jedi texts, and there may be more Force-history data floating around out there. If a Holocron was central to the plot of The Rise of Skywalker, maybe it could contain some more details about the “Chosen One” and “bringing balance to the Force.” Because that shit isn’t confusing at all.

3. It’s part of the “Wayfinder” compass device

Though there has been nothing confirmed about this yet, a lot of Rise of Skywalker theories have claimed Kylo Ren needs a “Wayfinder” device, which is some kind of compass that lets him locate the Death Star, or Palpatine or something. (It also might be the Sith version of a horcrux.) This gold disc may be part of that device, assuming it exists in the first place.

2. It’s a data disc containing the location of the Sith Fleet

In the D23 trailer, there’s a giant clutch of old-school Imperial Star Destroyers from the classic trilogy, not the local bulk First Order ships, I’m talking about the retro Corellian ships. Naturally, because there are so damn many of these things, there’s a lot of discussion around where they came from and how that will factor-in to the rest of the movie. Conventional wisdom would suggest these ships will be part of the First Order’s plan, or will be controlled by Palpatine.

But perhaps that isn’t the case. Maybe if it’s just a bunch of awesome ships that function on autopilot, and anybody can take control of them. This would be a big homage to the Katana Fleet from Dark Force Rising; but it would also reference Dark Empire, where the new Rebel Alliance uses old Star Destroyers as ships for the good guys. It’s possible Zorri Bliss has the coordinates of this nifty fleet and offer them to the resistance.

1. It’s a thing that re-programs C-3PO

C-3PO’s red eyes from the D23 trailer inspired a ton of fan theories. When you put them all in a blender, the basic idea is this: C-3PO will be reprogrammed at some point in the movie. (This could help explain why he’s holding Chewbacca’s bowcaster on several posters and in the officially released toys.) Setting aside the why for a second, how and where does C-3PO get reprogrammed?

A few weeks back, Lucasfilm released an image of an alien named Babu Frik, who has been described as a “droidsmith.” New Rise of Skywalker toys have paired this little creature with C-3PO, implying some kind of connection between them. On top of that, fans on Reddit (see above) have noticed Zorri’s disc looks a bit like the back of C-3PO’s head on the inside. It’s possible Zorri may give somebody (probably Poe or Rey) a data disc to rewrite C-3PO’s programming. This could be because C-3PO will be needed to translate some writing on a Sith blade (which may or may not be Rey’s double-bladed red saber), but it also could just be because the Resistance needs him to kick a little more ass.

In any case, having some kind of data disc being shoved into C-3PO in The Rise of Skywalker would be a really fitting way to wrap up the entire saga. R2-D2 famously carried the Death Star Plans. BB-8 had the map to Luke Skywalker. It’s actually about time C-3PO became a super-pivotal droid. He’s waited for eight films for his comment in the spotlight. Maybe this is it.

Star Wars: The Rise of Anthony Daniels Skywalker is out everywhere on December 20, 2019.