When Disney acquired Lucasfilm and pledged to create a Star Wars sequel trilogy, newly appointed president Kathleen Kennedy began the search for a filmmaker who would take on the daunting task of kicking it off with Episode VII. J.J. Abrams ended up jumping ship from the Star Trek franchise to take the job.
Abrams didn’t intend to return to the Star Wars saga after helming The Force Awakens, but when Kennedy fired Colin Trevorrow from Episode IX due to creative disagreements, she brought Abrams back to conclude the trilogy (and the entire Skywalker saga) with The Rise of Skywalker. Throughout these two movies, Abrams contributed some great things — and some not-so-great things — to the Star Wars canon.
Best: Casting The Lead Characters
The best that the sequel trilogy’s thinly developed characters could hope for was an inconsistent character arc like Rey and Kylo Ren got. The worst they could expect was a completely non-existent arc, like the sidelined Finn and Poe got.
But one thing the producers got right about these characters was casting. Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, and Adam Driver are four of the greatest actors working today and they were all perfectly suited to their roles.
Worst: Starkiller Base
Despite the infinite possibilities of the Star Wars universe and all the avenues the story could’ve taken after Return of the Jedi, J.J. Abrams decided to direct The Force Awakens as a soft remake of the original 1977 movie.
The galaxy is under the control of a new evil empire and Leia Organa is leading a new rebel force against it. The First Order even has its own Death Star weapon — the less catchily named Starkiller Base — that the Resistance has to blow up in the final battle.
Best: Stunning Dogfight Sequences
Space battles have always been a significant part of the Star Wars saga, but J.J. Abrams brought a lot of the airborne starfighter combat in his own Star Wars movies into the atmosphere of various planets.
From the battle over Maz Kanata’s castle to the battle over Starkiller Base, Abrams directed a handful of stunning dogfight sequences for the sequel trilogy.
Worst: Supreme Leader Snoke
There were some intriguing new characters introduced in The Force Awakens, but Supreme Leader Snoke was the absolute worst. The rest of the sequel trilogy struggled to make up for the fact that its Big Bad was just a shallow knockoff of Palpatine.
Rian Johnson subverted expectations with an unceremonious bisection in The Last Jedi, then Abrams retconned the entire character to be one of zombie Palpatine’s nefarious creations in The Rise of Skywalker.
Best: BB-8
Ever since Princess Leia sent R2-D2 and C-3PO down to Tatooine to deliver a message to Obi-Wan Kenobi, droids have been crucial to the Star Wars saga. In The Force Awakens, J.J. Abrams introduced a new droid: BB-8.
With his unique spherical design and his adorable voice created by Bill Hader and Ben Schwartz, BB-8 has quickly become one of the most beloved droids in the Star Wars universe.
Worst: Force-Healing
Technically, Force-healing was introduced on The Mandalorian when Grogu used the Force to heal a potentially fatal wound sustained by Greef Karga. But that episode aired a couple of days before The Rise of Skywalker hit theaters, so it was clearly designed to introduce it to the canon ahead of Abrams’ movie’s heavy use of this new Force ability.
In The Rise of Skywalker, Rey kills Ben Solo, then Leia transfers her lifeforce to bring him back to life. Later, Rey is killed in the final duel and Ben transfers his lifeforce into her. It didn’t feel like Star Wars; it felt like some other fantasy universe with completely different lore.
Best: Babu Frik
When C-3PO needs to be reprogrammed to translate the Sith writings on the MacGuffin in The Rise of Skywalker, the gang travels to Kijimi to meet with Poe’s old spice-running crew. There, they introduce them to a tiny droidsmith named Babu Frik, who's in contention with Grogu for the title of most adorable Star Wars character.
In addition to providing the voice for Babu, Shirley Henderson learned how to puppeteer so that she could improvise with the character and match his body language to his voice.
Worst: Chewbacca’s Fake-Out Death
In the middle of The Rise of Skywalker, some Stormtroopers take Chewie as a prisoner and when Rey tries to stop the Imperial transport from leaving with him, she accidentally shoots out some Force lightning and blows it up.
Seconds later, it’s revealed that Chewie was on a different transport and he’s okay. Rey’s guilt has no weight because we know it’s unwarranted, and the fake-out has no impact because the truth is revealed straight away.
Best: Returning To Practical Effects
One of the biggest criticisms of George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels was that they overused CGI. To be fair to Lucas, CGI was new at the time (brand-new, actually, as Lucas practically had to invent it to make his trilogy) and filmmakers hadn’t determined how much was an appropriate amount to use.
When J.J. Abrams began work on the sequel trilogy, he went back to the practical effects used in the original trilogy. Obviously, his Star Wars movies have plenty of computer-generated effects, but he used practical methods where it was possible.
Worst: Ben Solo’s Redemption
Thanks to Darth Vader’s redemption in Return of the Jedi, redemption arcs have become commonplace in sci-fi and fantasy stories. This had an unfortunate knock-on effect with the sequel trilogy, as J.J. Abrams introduced Kylo Ren as Han and Leia’s corrupted son to set up yet another redemption arc.
In The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson doubled down on the idea that, unlike Vader, Ben Solo is irredeemable. But Abrams ignored this in The Rise of Skywalker and gave Ben an empty, unearned redemption.