While Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi came under heavy fire for its treatment of Luke Skywalker, the middle chapter of Disney and Lucasfilm’s Sequel Trilogy was also criticised for abandoning the plot threads laid out by J.J. Abrams in Star Wars: The Force Awakens – namely the mystery behind Supreme Leader Snoke, and the identity of Rey’s parents.
Following the departure of Colin Trevorrow from the director’s chair on Episode IX, Abrams now finds himself back in the saddle to finish up the trilogy with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and speaking to Entertainment Tonight, the filmmaker has admitted that The Last Jedi “didn’t really derail” anything he’d originally intended for the Sequels:
“The story that we’re telling, the story that we started to conceive when we did The Force Awakens, was allowed to continue,” said Abrams. “Episode VIII didn’t really derail anything that we were thinking about.”
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That’s certainly fortunate for Abrams, who appears to be getting to finish the story he started to tell without any major deviations to his plans. However, one can’t help but think the Sequel Trilogy would have benefited greatly had Lucasfilm taken the time to map out the story ahead of time rather than the film-to-film-to-film approach they opted to go with.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is set for release on December 19th 2019 in the UK and December 20th 2019 in North America with J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) directing a cast that includes Star Wars veterans Daisy Ridley (Rey), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), John Boyega (Finn), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), Lupita Nyong’o (Maz Kanata), Domhnall Gleeson (General Hux), Kelly Marie Tran (Rose Tico), Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca), Billie Lourd (Lieutenant Connix), Greg Grunberg (Snap Wexley), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian) and Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa) as well as new additions Naomi Ackie (Lady Macbeth), Richard E. Grant (Logan), Dominic Monaghan (Lost), and Keri Russell (The Americans).
