JJ Abrams Talks About How 'The Last Jedi' Impacted 'The Rise Of Skywalker'

By: Dominic Jones

A lot has been made about how the decisions Rian Johnson made while making The Last Jedi differed from what JJ Abrams had in mind for Episode VIII and how they might have impacted the story Abrams created for The Rise of Skywalker.  Abrams discussed this in a recent interview with Empire Magazine, where he described Johnson's choices as being "weirdly beneficial" to him when writing the new film.

The director said, "Even some of the things that happened in Episode VIII that at the time I thought, ‘Oh, that’s an interesting choice I would not have made,’ weirdly ended up being beneficial for this film."  He later added, "Certain things that happened in Rian’s film, and certainly all the films that preceded VII, were all inspiration for the cocktail that became Rise Of Skywalker."

This is the same message Abrams has been conveying in interviews about The Rise of Skywalker for some time.  In an earlier interview with Empire, he further clarified that he didn't see what he was doing in Episode IX as undoing what was done in Episode VIII, saying, "I never found myself trying to repair anything."

In another interview with Rolling Stone, Abrams revealed what surprised him most about Johnson's film (which he read the script for and saw multiple early cuts of).  The Rise of Skywalker director said, 

"I felt the biggest surprise was how dark Luke was. That was the thing that I thought: 'Oh, that was unexpected.' And that’s the thing The Last Jedi undeniably succeeds at, which is constant subversion of expectation. The number of things that happened in that movie that aren’t the thing you think is going to happen is pretty fun."

He also, again, clarified to Rolling Stone that nothing in the film conflicted with what he imagined would happen in the sequel, saying, "when I read Rian’s script, what I felt was that with everything that happens in that movie, and quite a lot does, nothing sort of obviated a sense of inevitability where I thought the story could go."

If you haven't seen the final for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker yet (or want to watch it again), you can do so below,

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.  The film is directed by JJ Abrams, with a script by Abrams and Chris Terio, and stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Kelly Marie Tran, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, Keri Russell, Richard E. Grant, Naomi Ackie, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie Fisher.

Sources: Empire, Rolling Stone

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