Star Wars: Return of the Jedi was a much better finale than Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Darth Maul actor Sam Witwer said. J.J Abrams' returned to the galaxy far, far away after kicking off the sequel trilogy in 2015 with Star Wars: The Force Awakens to wrap up the Skywalker saga last year with the ninth and final episode from the franchise. The film was unfortunately met with a divisive response, with some saying it was a truncated and unsatisfying ending.
Picking up a year after the events of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker had its work cut out for it. The film had to wrap up the nine-film Skywalker saga, not to mention a proper send-off to the Carrie Fisher's Leia Organa, who was supposed to be the focal character of the movie. Now, months after its release, it remains a favorite topic of conversation, especially on the heels of this year's Star Wars day.
As a self-confessed Star Wars fan who also happen to work for the animated side of things - most notably providing the voice for Darth Maul and Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels - Witwer shared his two cents about The Rise of Skywalker, which he unfortunately didn't really like, in a recent Twitch stream (via CBR). Comparing it to Return of the Jedi, he said the 1983 original trilogy capper was a much better ending than the final Skywalker saga movie.
It's um... look, if you like it, awesome. It's not as meaningful to me because I can't really reconcile that mythology with George's. But that's just my opinion, you know? My personal is take is I think a Star Wars where the moral of the story is 'throw down your weapon, don't hurt your family, love or fear.' I think that's superior than a Star Wars where you win by melting the bad guy's face off. That's just my thing... I don't know that you can do a better ending than Return of the Jedi.
Witwer's new comments come after he aired his grievances over Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi. According to him, it didn't seem like the filmmaker, who also wrote the movie, didn't do his homework with regard to the lore and core principle of Star Wars. While he did say he found many compelling elements in the story, for him, it just didn't fit the themes that the iconic sci-fi franchise is known for. He particularly cited having a problem with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) not rushing to his sister's aide when she called to him.
Given the divisive nature of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it's safe to say that Witwer isn't the only one who feels this way. A lot of the criticism for the movie stemmed from it undoing The Last Jedi resulting in a muddled overall trilogy story. It's also worth noting that the lack of planning from Lucasfilm also had something to do with this problem, with some arguing that it was essentially the root of all the sequel trilogy's problems.
Source: Sam Witwer (via CBR)