WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
J.J. Abrams has answered some of fans' most pressing questions with regard to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. After kick starting the sequel trilogy in 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the filmmaker is back to close out not just the ongoing narrative but also the whole Skywalker saga. This time, he teamed up with Chris Terrio to pen the movie's script.
Picking up a year after the events of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker had a lot of narrative points to hit. Aside from sending off the franchise's legacy character and cap off the arcs of the new crop of galactic players, the return of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) posed a whole new story layer to tackle for the movie. Overall, the public is split regarding how they feel Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker capped off the Skywalker saga. At just a little bit over than two hours, reviews were unanimous on criticizing that it's overstuffed with details. Considering this, there's several details - both in terms of narrative or production specifics - that need some clarification. Fortunately, Abrams is able to accommodate and address queries.
Over the weekend, Abrams and Terrio attended the Academy's screening of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and treated fans with question and answer portion. Here are all the queries they addressed.
What Was Finn Going to Tell Rey?
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker reunited Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Finn (John Boyega) after they spent most of The Last Jedi apart. Alongside Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), the sequel trilogy's main trio went on a new adventure in search of answers regarding the mysterious return of Emperor Palpatine. Throughout their journey, Finn attempted to tell Rey something, unfortunately, every single time he was ready to blurt it out, they get distracted. In the end, the former-Stormtrooper-turned-Resistance fighter was never given the chance to say what he was meaning to tell his friend. There was no clue whatsoever given in Star Wars 9 what it was, but fans assumed that it was something important to Finn.
Abrams has now confirmed that Finn was going to tell Rey that he too, like her, is Force-sensitive. While this wasn't particularly asked during the Q&A, it's revealed that a fan asked him while mingling with other attendees of the screening which was where this question was raised.
Why Was Rey Being A Palpatine More Interesting Than Being A Nobody?
One of the most controversial narrative decisions that Abrams and Terrio made in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was the reveal that Rey, in fact, isn't a nobody as The Last Jedi initially said. Instead of simply being a random person in the universe who happens to be strong with the Force, she's the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine, one of, if not the most powerful Sith Masters ever. Those who found The Last Jedi's take on the sequel trilogy's lead character bold and refreshing obviously have some problems with the latest movie walking back on it. However, both writers justified their creative choice by pointing out that narrative-speaking, it's simply more interesting if Rey's origins was more complicated than being the daughter of drunks who sold her for booze money.
Terrio explained the Rey parents twist by saying that at the core of their story is the idea that "you don't discover who you are, you create it." This was backed up Abrams who said that they wanted to drive the point that "anyone can be anything regardless of where you're from." And for Rey, they felt like the biggest inner struggle she could face was the realization that she came from the worst place possible. It presented a personal conflict for the character about whether she's going to be defined by her blood relations to Darth Sidious or not.
Why Did Palpatine Have To Return?
For a film that was shrouded in mystery, Lucasfilm decided to confirm the return of Emperor Palpatine for The Rise of Skywalker early on. Announced during this year's Star Wars Celebration Chicago, the first teaser for the movie ended with the unmistakable cackle from the franchise villain. This sparked countless conversations leading up to the film's release regarding how, when and why Sidious was back considering that he supposedly died in Return of the Jedi. While the public was initially ecstatic to learn that Darth Sidious will be back for the movie, the reception to his actual return was more lukewarm, especially when it's revealed that he's Rey's grandfather.
The decision to bring Palpatine back, however, stemmed from how important the Skywalker lineage is in the Star Wars saga and how at every turn of the familial story - from Anakin Skywalker down to Ben Solo - Darth Sidious was somehow involved. So for Terrio, it makes sense that Palpatine was also at play for the final installment in the Skywalker saga.
Does The Rise of Skywalker Retcon Luke's Arc in The Last Jedi?
The Force Awakens ended on Rey tracking down Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and handing him his father's lightsaber, hinting at the Jedi Master's return. However, fans were surprised that the beloved hero they knew was nothing more but a haunted recluse, declining to train Rey to become a Jedi, and in effect his sister, Leia (Carrie Fisher) and the Resistance. After much contemplation and the reveal of what really happened between him and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) that pushed the latter to the dark side, Luke ultimately came through, providing assistance to the Resistance and ultimately dying in the process.
When we reunite with his Force ghost in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Luke was noticeably different from his appearance in The Last Jedi. He even caught Rey's thrown lightsaber, which many assumes to be an active reversal of The Last Jedi's opening where he threw out his father's lightsaber. However, Abrams argued the Luke lightsaber moment wasn't a retcon. Instead, the change in Luke was due to his new learnings from the events of The Last Jedi. After coming to terms with his failure as a Jedi Master, putting him in a better position to give Rey that pep talk about facing her fears of confronting Palpatine.
Are Rey and Kylo Ren A Romantic Couple?
As the two primary characters representing the light and dark side of the Force in Star Wars' sequel trilogy, it's quite odd that there was a segment of the fandom that pushed for Rey and Kylo to be together. However, as their relationship developed through their shared connection with the Force, The Rise of Skywalker found a way to cater to that aspiration when Rey and Kylo briefly kissed following the defeat of Palpatine. Unfortunately, their supposed love story ended before it even began with Ben dying to save her shortly after their kiss.
Abrams, however, seems to have a very different interpretation of that kiss (via Twitter) as not "sexual romantic kind of thing." Instead it's "as much as brother/sister thing with Rey and Kylo Ren" - more similar to when Luke and Leia locked lips in the original trilogy. He also pointed out that in the early drafts, the sequel characters were originally written to be siblings. Admittedly, this was a bad compariosn considering that the Skywalker twins' kiss was problematic in itself. This also makes Rey and Kylo Ren's kiss totally unnecessary since The Last Jedi and even Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (for the most part) already did a great job establishing their connection without engaging in an extremely physically intimate way with each other.
