After Rey manages to defeat Emperor Palpatine in
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it appears as if the Sith have finally been defeated (especially as his followers are all destroyed in the process). However, writer Chris Terrio has now shed some light on how the Jedi's actions actually bring balance back to the Force as opposed to completely wiping out the Dark.
"The balance of the Force always, as George [Lucas] has said, means that the Dark and the Light exist," he explains. "There are corners everywhere in the galaxy where the Dark still exists, except that with the rise of Palpatine and the original trilogy, I think the way George would describe it is that the Dark had become too powerful to the point where the Light had almost disappeared."
Palpatine's plan is a tad muddled in the movie itself, but he was clearly hoping to wipe out the Jedi for good by inhabiting Rey's body (without her, there would only be Force sensitive individuals and no one left that was trained in the way of the Jedi). However, his defeat ensured that would never come to pass.
"So in winning this victory against the First Order and the remnants of the Empire and the Sith loyalists, I think that the balance is restored, because the Dark had been growing much, much more powerful than the Light," Terrio continues. "By Rey striking this blow, it doesn’t mean that everything is happily ever after forever, but it means that at least for this moment in time, the Dark has been held off as the Light has pushed back."
It sounds like the Sith - or something similar - could return to plague Rey and her friends somewhere down the line, but The Emperor's death finally achieves what Darth Vader attempted to do when he "killed" his Master decades earlier. It's not a bad way to bring the story full circle, of course, but there are still a lot of gaps in this tale that need to be filled out down the line.
What do you think about Terrio's comments?