Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a movie that's going to keep fans talking for a very long time to come, and in a new interview following the release of the film, writer Chris Terrio (
Justice League) has finally shed some light on a number of lingering questions it leaves us with.
From how Leia discovered Rey was a Palpatine to the thought process behind having the hero be related to the iconic villain and whether those plot developments really were jabs at
The Last Jedi, Terrio addresses a lot of what the movie itself probably should have. He even touches on that very minor crossover with
The Mandalorian and how it ultimately came about.
There are major spoilers here, but we're sure you've seen the Skywalker Saga finale by now!
So, to check out these comments from Terrio - along with all the officially released images from
The Rise of Skywalker - all you guys have to do is click on the "View List" button down below.
Did Luke And Leia Discuss Rey's Ancestry After The Battle Of Crait?
While Luke was training Rey, he referenced Darth Sidious, but didn't seem to be at all fazed by the villain's granddaughter being right in front of him. With that in mind, common sense says he realised who she was when he opened himself up to the Force again, so does that mean he told Leia about Rey's ancestry following his death during the Battle of Crait?
"This one I have to leave to the imagination of the viewer. But, I don't think it would be wrong to assume that Luke's Force Ghost would seek out his Force-sensitive, Jedi-trained sister."
Why Rey's Parents Were No Longer "Nobody"
In
The Last Jedi, we learned that Rey's parents were "filthy junk traders" and no one of any importance.
The Rise of Skywalker, on the other hand, reveals that her father was Emperor Palpatine's son, and Terrio has now elaborated on the thought process behind this apparent retcon.
"You can leave Episode VIII and say, 'Well, now, Rey is content. She’s discovered her parents aren’t Skywalkers, or whatever, and that’s fine.' Although she did get some answers in Episode VIII, we didn’t feel that that story was over. We felt that there were still more questions in Rey’s head about where she came from and where she was going. So, that was the other big idea that we had to address in this film. Rian’s answer to, 'What’s the worst news that Rey could receive?' was that she comes from junk traders, and that’s true. She does come from junk traders; we didn’t contradict that. But when J.J. and I spoke, he said, 'Well, what’s an even worse answer or elaboration of that news?'
"And we thought the worst answer was that she descended from the family who are the enemies of her new family, her adoptive family. Discovering that you actually descended from your adoptive family’s greatest enemy, the same enemy who corrupted Anakin Skywalker and is responsible for the destruction of the Skywalker family in the first place, felt most devastating to us. Based on that, we were very moved by the idea that Leia would have known that from the very beginning, but since she still saw such hope, heart and spirit in Rey, she decided that she was going to take a chance on putting all the hope of the galaxy into the hands of a descendent of her greatest enemy. As Luke says, some things are stronger than blood. That felt like a really strong story point to us."
Finn Is Force Sensitive
Throughout the film, Finn tries to tell Rey something, and by the time
The Rise of Skywalker ends, we still haven't learned what that is. Well, Terrio has confirmed that the former Stormtrooper wanted to tell his best friend that he's actually Force Sensitive (an out of the blue reveal which does explain a few things in the movie).
"Hopefully, the film also suggests that Finn is discovering that he is a Force user and is Force strong. Finn feels the death of Rey, and in a crucial moment during the battle, Finn senses the command ship where the navigation signal was coming from. So, we wanted to begin to plant the idea that Finn is Force strong and that there are other people in the galaxy who are Force strong."
When it was put to the writer that it felt like Finn may have wanted to confess his feelings for Rey, he added:
"There are some people who read it as Finn having feelings for Rey; there are some who read it as Finn trying to make that Force-related confession. What’s undeniable is that in the middle of the battle, when the source of the navigation signal is changed, Finn has a very strong sense of where it is, and that’s knowledge he couldn’t really have unless he was using the Force."
Why Rey Had To Be Linked To A Familiar Face
So, we know why the decision was made for Rey's parents to no longer be nobodies, but did her grandfather really have to be Emperor Palpatine? After all, at the end of
The Last Jedi, we saw a young child use the Force to move a broom, proof that anyone can tap into those abilities and that you don't need to be anyone's decendent.
"[The] galaxy is full of Force users, and you don’t have to be a Skywalker or a Palpatine in order to be strong with the Force. But Luke does say very explicitly in Return of the Jedi, 'The Force is strong in my family,' and we know that there is an inherited element to Force power. So, considering that this was a story of the Palpatines and Skywalkers, at least these nine movies, we decided to focus on the family part.
"Rey descending from a Palpatine doesn’t negate the idea that kids with brooms, Finn and any other number of people in the galaxy can be strong with the Force. It just so happens that this young girl that we found in Episode VII — which really has the structure of a fairytale — is royalty of the Dark Side. What we discover in this movie, and hopefully in retrospect, is that she’s essentially a princess who’s being raised as an orphan. The idea that this royalty of the Dark Side would be found as a scavenger in the middle of nowhere, literally living off the ruins of the old war that was created by her ancestors, felt really strong to us."
What It Means For Rey To Be "Rey Skywalker"
Terrio has said in other interviews that "Skywalker" isn't the new name for "Jedi" in the
Star Wars Universe following Rey's declaration at the end of the movie, and now reveals that, for the hero, choosing that moniker is a sign that she's deciding who she wants to be after that big Palpatine reveal.
"[At] the end of the movie, when Rey declares herself a Skywalker, that felt like the end of that conversation, which is to say that you get to choose your family, and really, you get to choose your ancestry," the writer explains.
"Rey rejects the blood ancestry that she has inherited, and instead, she chooses the ancestry of the Jedi."
"When all the Jedi come to Rey at the end, one of the Jedi lightly says, 'We are your ancestors now,' in the background, and I think that’s true. She chooses the spiritual ancestry of the Jedi instead of the blood ancestry of Palpatine."
Was Luke Skywalker Making A Jab At Rian Johnson?
Following
The Force Awakens' huge cliffhanger ending, Rian Johnson addressed that by having Luke Skywalker throw his old lightsaber away at the start of
The Last Jedi. Now, speculation is running rampant that his comments in The Rise of Skywalker about the iconic weapon deserving more respect may have been a swipe at the filmmaker on Abrams' part.
"Those people who see it as a meta-argument between J.J. and Rian are missing the point, I think," Terrio says.
"At the end of The Last Jedi, Luke has changed. When Luke says, 'A Jedi’s weapon deserves more respect' in Episode IX, that’s Luke speaking. That’s his own character. He’s making fun of himself. He’s saying to Rey, 'Please don’t make the same mistake that I did.'"
In that moment, it truly is a character moment because we quite deliberately set up the same situation of tossing a saber, but this time, Luke is there to save Rey from making a bad choice. I think it would be a bad misreading to think that that was somehow me and J.J. having an argument with Rian. It was more like we were in dialogue with Rian by using what Luke did at the beginning of The Last Jedi to now say that history will not repeat itself and all these characters have grown."
The Rise Of Skywalker's Crossover With The Mandalorian
The same week that
The Rise of Skywalker arrived in theaters, an episode of
The Mandalorian showed Baby Yoda using the Force to heal someone (an ability displayed by both Rey and Kylo Ren in the movie). As it turns out, that was indeed a deliberate move on the part of Disney and Lucasfilm.
"We had discussions within Lucasfilm about various Force powers, and Force-healing, which is something that’s been mentioned in various extended universe stories, was an idea that both Dave Filoni, Jon Favreau and we, over on the film side, thought was a really interesting thing to explore."
"It might not have been completely planned at the beginning," Terrio continues,
"but once we realized that we were both coming upon this new expression of Force power, we then worked with that in mind, knowing that this was a thing that would be seen at different times in different parts of the galaxy at roughly the same time [of release]."
Where Were The Rest Of The Skywalkers At The End Of The Movie?
Luke and Leia appear as Force Ghosts at the end of
The Rise of Skywalker, but where were Anakin Skywalker, Ben Solo, and some of the other characters you might expect to show themselves?
Terrio offers a lengthy explanation about his and Abrams' thought process behind that decision.
"We absolutely discussed who would be there at the end. It’s not as though those Force ghosts will never appear to Rey now that she really is the first of the new Jedi. I think she has all of those Jedi behind her. J.J. was pretty clear about the idea that he didn’t want to take away from the moment of Leia finally appearing as a Force ghost and the twins finally being together. This might be in the novelization, but we talked a lot about how Leia lost her home. Alderaan is gone. So, she could never take Luke to see where she grew up as a princess, but Luke could’ve taken Leia to see where he grew up as a farmer. But, the twins never got to Tatooine together (to visit Luke's childhood farm). So, the idea of seeing the twins together after the sabers are laid to rest felt like it was something that was very moving to me and J.J.
"To circle back one of your earlier questions, besides the friends being together, I suppose our main goal of those first few weeks — because we were working largely with the Leia footage — was to fulfill the promise of “there is another” in this film. It has to put Leia into the Jedi pantheon. To do that without new footage of Leia was challenging, but that became the central story of Rey finishing the Jedi journey of Leia. That way, by the end of the film, Leia could join Luke as a Force Ghost and spiritually join her father and all the other Jedi. While you only see the twins in that moment, we thought that would give Leia more centrality, and you would really feel the strength of seeing Leia in the Jedi afterlife for the first time. Spiritually, it’s not a crazy idea that all the Jedi would be standing with them, but it might’ve been a bit of a visual shock to see all these new characters on Tatooine who weren’t part of the story of Leia, Luke and Rey."
Is Rey Living On Tatooine Now?
The Rise of Skywalker wraps up with Rey burying both Luke and Leia's lightsabers on Tatooine, and with the soundtrack naming this scene "A New Home," does that mean the Jedi will live there now?
"I can say with confidence that neither the screenplay nor the film suggest that Rey is going to live alone on Tatooine," Terrio confirms.
"The track names on the soundtrack were at the discretion of the master himself, John Williams. I can't presume to say what John meant when he titled the piece "A New Home," but I can say that Rey's arc over three films has to do with her finding the belonging she seeks with the new family she's found inside the Resistance."
"The very last thing Rey would do after all that is to go and live alone in a desert. Rey goes back to Tatooine as a pilgrimage in honor of her two Skywalker masters. Leia's childhood home, Alderaan, no longer exists, but Luke's childhood home, Tatooine, does. Rey brings the sabers there to honor the Skywalker twins by laying them to rest -- together, finally -- where it all began."
How Did Lando Calrissian Inspire The Galaxy When Luke Didn't?
One of the biggest complaints surrounding
The Rise of Skywalker is that the movie starts with the Resistance still on the run despite Luke's sacrifice. However, when Lando goes off for a few hours, he manages to assemble perhaps the biggest army the Galaxy has ever seen to stop The Final Order!
As it turns out, Terrio has an explanation for how all of that ultimately ties together.
"I don't want to over-explain our intentions in the film, and I'd leave it to the audience to draw causal connections between events. But, I will say this: there's no reason to think that Luke's sacrifice wasn't what inspired the galaxy. Lando rounded up the allies, but clearly something has changed in the galaxy since the Battle of Crait. The galaxy answers the call this time. I can't speak for anyone except myself, but in The Last Jedi, we are given a privileged moment with the children on Canto Bight. The audience understands — though perhaps the Resistance does not yet understand — that something is changing in the galaxy at that moment. In my mind at least, the legend of Skywalker and of his sacrifice is taking root in the consciousness of the galaxy. Again, I won't presume to decode the film, but when the galaxy answers this time around, I sure as hell wouldn't contradict anyone who draws a connection between the sacrifice of Skywalker, the final scene in TLJ, and the galaxy coming when called at the climax of TROS. It's all one story."