It’s curious that the first two installments of the Sequel Trilogy took entirely different approaches but both annoyed a lot of Star Wars fans. The Force Awakens was accused of playing it too safe and simply redoing A New Hope while The Last Jedi was widely criticized for being too radical and irreverent. So, what approach will the upcoming Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker take?
Well, director J.J. Abrams recently gave us an eye-opening hint while speaking to Vanity Fair. It seems the filmmaker decided to go with something closer to what Rian Johnson did on TLJ rather than his own style on TFA, as he explained that he wasn’t “beholden” to the past of the franchise with Rise as he was when he made Episode VII.
“Working on nine, I found myself approaching it slightly differently— which is to say that, on seven, I felt beholden to Star Wars in a way that was interesting— I was doing what to the best of my ability I felt Star Wars should be… (This time) it felt slightly more renegade; it felt slightly more like, you know, F**k it, I’m going to do the thing that feels right because it does, not because it adheres to something,”
This is interesting to hear, as the first trailer for Skywalker teased a lot of fan-pleasing moments and nods to the past. None greater than the cackle of Emperor Palpatine, promising that Ian McDiarmid would be returning as the uber-villain last seen in Return of the Jedi (well, chronologically). Perhaps Abrams’ affection for the history of the franchise plus a dash of that, as he puts it above, “F**k it” mentality could be the best of both worlds and unite the fandom for once? We live in hope.
In any case, Abrams has previously described the movie as the climax of the entire Skywalker saga and the culmination of the story that began back in 1977. In fact, he even consulted George Lucas to make sure it was heading in the right direction. We’ll discover how well his approach worked when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits cinemas on December 20th.