'This was not small stakes for us': J.J. Abrams brings 'Star Wars' saga to a close with 'Rise of Skywalker'
NEW YORK – The “Star Wars” saga has ended before: In “Return of the Jedi” 36 years ago, the Rebellion defeated the Empire and blew up a second Death Star, the evil Darth Vader found redemption, furry Ewoks celebrated, heroes celebrated and the ghosts of fallen Jedi grinned in victory.
Somewhere between that and George Lucas rolling out his prequel trilogy in 1999, director J.J. Abrams – the man tasked to again complete the series with “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” (in theaters Thursday night) – remembered hearing that Lucas had three trilogies in mind.
So while Abrams and his generation had an ending in 1983, “I was living with a feeling that it was going to be brought to another end,” the filmmaker says. “I always felt like, ‘Oh, it's going to continue.’ I never dreamed I'd be involved in the telling of that story.”
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“Rise of Skywalker” not only concludes the current trilogy Abrams started with the 2015 mega-hit “The Force Awakens” but also the nine-episode Skywalker saga Lucas began back in 1977 when Abrams was about to turn 11.
Rebellious new heroes Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) have to face a new version of the Empire, the evil First Order (and a returning villainous Emperor), one last time with legacy characters such as princess-turned-general Leia Organa (the late Carrie Fisher), smooth gambler Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams) and droid C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), who’s been in every episode of the three trilogies.
Final chapters, though, are not Abrams’ forte. “Endings are hard, especially for me,” he acknowledges, his hair wild and his espresso “tasty” the morning after he finished the final cut of “Rise of Skywalker.” Beginnings for him are “a more familiar, fun place” with “the promise of ‘Ooh, what's going to happen?’” But the "daunting" conclusion here "had to be great on a lot of levels. This was not small stakes for us."
Abrams wasn’t supposed to be the guy bringing the Millennium Falcon in for a landing. But when Colin Trevorrow (“Jurassic World”) departed “Episode IX” two years ago because of differences in “vision,” Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy called Abrams to return and he called up Oscar-winning co-writer Chris Terrio (“Argo”).
When Terrio talked with Abrams about the theme of generations trying to measure up to the one that came before, his mind went to the War of 1812 for inspiration.
“They were the sons and daughters of the revolutionary generation,” Terrio says. “Washington is burned and they need to show that they have learned the lessons of their forebears, that they have the courage and the resilience and the intelligence and the heart to stand up and fight to preserve what the previous generation had won.”
Ridley just loves that her younger squad of "Star Wars" good guys is back together after director Rian Johnson's 2017 “The Last Jedi” separated them. She teases a “Goonies”-like vibe of “kids on a fun adventure” in “Rise of Skywalker," and Boyega adds that the team atmosphere is "what I loved about the original ‘Star Wars.'"
So does Abrams. He admired the “subversion and element of surprise” of giving the heroes solo missions in “Last Jedi,” “but still in my gut, I found myself desperate to see this group out and on a thrilling, seat-of-your-pants, breakneck-crazy, unexpected, devastating, hysterical thrill ride. So when Kathy called to say, 'Would you want to come on?' I found myself feeling shocked that I would have the opportunity to realize the thing I was so hungry to see.”
For Abrams, "Star Wars" only works if the intimacy between characters does. “In that original trilogy, the things that just connect, for me at least, are almost always moments where two characters are essentially in a room, whether they're about to swing across a chasm or they're meeting a rogue smuggler in a bar.”
Abrams' pinch-me memories are still fresh. He gleefully recounts the last session with legendary composer John Williams, doing his final score for the franchise: "He played the 'Star Wars' theme just because. Steven Spielberg came. It was awesome." There are officially "Star Wars" films on the docket for Christmases in 2022, 2024 and 2026, though the movies are currently on hiatus and the future of the galaxy far, far away is cloudy after "Rise of Skywalker. ("Game of Thrones" creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss recently left their planned trilogy, though there are films in the works from Johnson as well as Marvel Studios' superhero chief Kevin Feige.)
"It leaves a big question mark," Boyega says. "We've just gotten used to a world where there's consistent 'Star Wars' and now it's not going to be the case."
Yet "Rise of Skywalker" closes the saga with "a feeling of exhilaration and fulfillment," Isaac says. "I can sense that down the road there'll always be a kind of bittersweet thing to say goodbye to this."
Daniels, a "Star Wars" stalwart for 40-plus years, isn’t sad that it's ending, especially with a tale that "wraps up so well and gets completed rather than sort of drifting on forever," he says. "On the whole, it's been an absolutely bloody marvelous story."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Star Wars': J.J. Abrams' 'Rise of Skywalker' was a 'daunting' closer
