‘THIS IS A FILM OF HOPE’
J.J. Abrams et al wax philosophical about the end of the Star Wars saga
Leave it to a writer to come up with the most apt, and perhaps geekiest, analogy when discussing the pressures that come with closing down one of the most popular storylines in cinematic history.
Chris Terrio was hand-picked by director J.J. Abrams to co-write Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the final episode in the nine-film, 42-year Skywalker saga. Perhaps best known as the Oscar-winning writer behind Ben Affleck’s Argo, Terrio acknowledges that he was elated when he got the call. But he also admits that the giddiness quickly dissipated when he realized the monumental task that lay before him.
“Oh my God, we have to land this vehicle somehow,” Terrio said during a news conference in Pasadena earlier this month. “We have to land the biggest star destroyer in the world on the head of a needle.”
At the time of this event, Abrams, Terrio and all the cast in attendance had watched the film at a private screening. Journalists, however, had not. So it became a strange exercise in actors trying to delve deep into their characters without revealing much of anything about their ultimate fates in the Skywalker saga.
Now that early reviews have been released, there seems to be a semi-consensus (could one 141-minute film possibly satisfy everyone?) that Rise of Skywalker is a fast-paced if overstuffed spectacle that does its best to wrap up all the dangling strings of the Skywalker saga. Some have suggested it’s a return to form after Rian Johnson’s 2017 hotly debated middle chapter, The Last Jedi. As Jordan Hoffman wrote in his review for the Guardian, there’s a feeling that “all the toys go back where they are supposed to go at the end.”
This presumably final battle brings back Daisy Ridley’s Force-enhanced Rey, John Boyega’s ex-stormtrooper turned freedom-fighter Finn, Kelly Marie Tran’s resourceful Rose Tico, Oscar Isaac’s dashing X-wing pilot Poe Dameron and Joonas Suotamo’s Chewbacca to battle the evil Final Order. Questions about bloodlines and such are reportedly addressed, as is the mysterious relationship between Rey and conflicted villain Kylo Ren, the former Ben Solo played by Adam Driver.
Having Abrams return to the fold — he also helmed trilogy opener The Force Awakens in 2015 — apparently strengthened the “gangis-back-together” vibe of the story.
“There was a looseness to it,” said Isaac. “There were things shot in big, beautiful choreographed takes that are just astounding to watch, where you’ll follow one character walking through this maze of an amazing planet with all these stormtroopers and aliens and you realize it’s all this one amazing continuous take with us talking over each other. So, it was that kind of trust that ... allowed, I think, a real spark of vitality.”
The new kids were also joined by the old. Puzzlingly, Emperor Palpatine (Ian Mcdiarmid, who was not at the news conference) is back to wreak havoc, despite the fact that he was seemingly offed by Darth Vader back in 1983’s Return of the Jedi. Billy Dee Williams also returns to play Lando Calrissian. The 82-year-old actor spent much of the event with a sly grin on his face, soaking up the reverence from the rest of the cast.
“I have a lot of admiration for this young man called Monsieur J.J. Abrams,” Williams said in his typically debonair manner. “When I got the call from J.J. and then when we met, I just sat there and I just chuckled, because I thought it was just a wonderful gift.”
There was a strange moment when Abrams was talking about how he was able to recycle old footage of the late Carrie Fisher’s Leia from The Force Awakens to include her in the new film. At the exact moment he mentioned being able to use the “lighting” from the old unused footage, the lights suddenly dimmed in the room.
“Hi Carrie.” Abrams said. “That’s so Carrie, by the way, to do that. Really weird.”
There was also a considerable amount of time spent on actors new to Star Wars, including an enthusiastic Richard E. Grant, who plays new villain Allegiant General Pryde, and Keri Russell, who hides behind a mask for the entire film as the mysterious Zorii Bliss. Newcomer Naomi Ackie plays the ass-kicking Jannah, a warrior who is called upon to fight the Final Order alongside the Resistance.
“We watched it yesterday, I’m not being funny, my heart was beating so hard and it’s the most visually beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Ackie said. “It makes you feel like a child. And there was an element of feeling like a child on set.”
Since she couldn’t say much about her character’s fate, Ridley talked about what she hopes will be a lasting legacy of the final trilogy of the Skywalker saga.
“A lot of people in cinema are talking about representation and change and aren’t doing it,” she says. “So, I think in itself, being part of a team of people that look a little different, that are from different places in whatever form that is — gender, race, whatever it is — I think that in itself is a legacy to be proud of. This is a film of hope. And I think we are reflective of the world at large.”
Whatever the case, until Disney decides differently and dreams up more spinoffs, The Rise of Skywalker is, for now, the end of the line for these characters. During the news conference, Terrio told a story about how he and Abrams struggled with writer’s block while penning a certain scene. They finally came to the conclusion that they were essentially putting off the inevitable because they didn’t want Star Wars to end.
“We had to go and write it,” Terrio says. “And then, of course, the movie is remade on the set and remade in editing and remade in scoring and remade in all kinds of ways. So we kept rediscovering the story. But I have to say, I think both of us mourned the moment when we typed the characters’ names for the last time.”
I’m not being funny, my heart was beating so hard and it’s the most visually beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.