Star Wars: The Last Jedi remains one of the most divisive blockbusters in recent memory, and much of that is down to the creative decisions made by director Rian Johnson.
For example, pretty much every cliffhanger from
The Force Awakens was undone as Supreme Leader Snoke was killed off without being given a backstory, Luke Skywalker didn't care about his lightsaber, and Rey's parents were outed as nobodies. Now, J.J. Abrams has shared his thoughts on those developments, and while he chose his words carefully, he clearly doesn't agree with the decisions Johnson made.
After praising the movie for being
"full of surprises and subversion and all sorts of bold choices," he added:
"On the other hand, it’s a bit of a meta approach to the story. I don’t think that people go to ‘Star Wars’ to be told, ‘This doesn’t matter.’"
After being brought in at the last minute to replace original
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker director Colin Trevorrow, Abrams notes that he had three fewer months for post-production than he did on
The Force Awakens and it made for a somewhat stressful experience.
"I’m not saying it’s like the closest that ‘Star Wars’ will ever get to being live TV, but it was not leisurely."
Apparently, major plot elements and whole chunks of dialogue were being reworked right up until the day they were filmed, but Abrams explains that the same thing happened on
The Force Awakens.
"[While] we’re shooting, we’re reconsidering things, changing some significant story points going back to ideas that we had loved but put away. That process never stopped."
"Some people can say, oh, that sounds like it’s crazy," Abrams said.
"But when you have the better idea, it doesn’t matter when it is — you have to try it."
It definitely sounds like Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will address much of what Johnson did (or didn't) do in his middle chapter, but Abrams clearly respects what came before so likely won't write off everything that happened.
What are your thoughts on these remarks from the director?
For details on an earlier version of Star Wars Episode
IX, simply click on the "View List" button below!
Ben Solo's Redemption
We'll begin with the ending. Apparently, the final battle wasn't on the Death Star or some sort of newly introduced planet; instead, it would have taken place in the Solo family home.
Surrounded by his family memories, Kylo Ren would have once again become Ben Solo and used his powers to save Rey. This iteration of
The Rise of Skywalker would have also dropped any sort of hints about a romantic relationship between the two and mostly consisted of Kylo chasing her around the Galaxy as he tried to force Rey to join the Dark Side.
Rey, meanwhile, would have still been trying to bring him back to the side of the angels.
Rey's "Nobody" Parents
In a rather strange sounding twist, it was going to be revealed that Rey's mother was a cool housemaid, and one-time nanny to Ben Solo. As small children, Ben and Rey actually grew up together and she was like his little sister (why neither of them appear to remember that is hard to say, but it seems likely that Kylo Ren was concealing this from her).
The site isn't sure what led to that relationship ending, but it's implied that Rey's parents fought in the Battle of Jakku, so something clearly led to them returning there. Perhaps they witnessed the Force connection between the two children and it freaked them out so much that they wanted to get rid of their daughter on the planet they first met Leia's family?
The First Order's New Plan
We don't really know what The First Order is up to in
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but common sense says they'll be all too willing to serve the returning Emperor Palpatine.
In Colin Trevorrow's version of the movie, there was going to be a rather unusual subplot with the villains erasing people's memories and then reprogramming them. Clearly, this was meant to shed some light on the creation of Stormtroopers and the site notes that "there was going to be some Manchurian Candidate type stuff going on in the background of the story."
The Emperor Was Going To Stay Dead
J.J. Abrams claims that the seeds for Emperor Palpatine's return were sewn in The Force Awakens, but Trevorrow actually had no intention of bringing the iconic villain back in this movie.
However, Lando was still expected to appear (which could explain him receiving a "Story by" credit) and Leia was going to be killed off due to Carrie Fisher's tragic passing. Leia was going to wield a lightsaber, though, and while the movie was set to include Red Stormtroopers, they wouldn't have been the Sith Troopers we've seen in this iteration of
Episode IX.
Don't Expect To See Any Of This In The Film
According to the site, none of these ideas have made it into
The Rise of Skywalker so don't get too excited about any of this playing out on the big screen later this month.
With any luck, Trevorrow will one day shed some light on what he had planned for the movie because it would be fascinating to know how the "Skywalker Saga" could have ended...and what led to the filmmaker parting ways with Lucasfilm and Disney over those infamous "creative differences."