The Rise of Skywalker JJ Abrams is Writing and Directing Episode IX

[Karelia]

Kathleen Kennedy is a moron and this quote just shows her level of incompetence

Guess she didn’t bother to research all the EU comics and novels that have been out since the 90s, most of which is thousands times better than what they’ve delivered with the sequel trilogy

I hope the rumors of her getting replaced are true

If Jon Fav and Dave Filoni are going to hey more involved with the future of Star Wars... it's in the best hands it could be right now.

And I agree... I would have loved to see the Jacen/Jaina Solo & Ben Skywalker dynamic!

 

[BatLobster]

Kathleen Kennedy is a moron and this quote just shows her level of incompetence

Guess she didn’t bother to research all the EU comics and novels that have been out since the 90s, most of which is thousands times better than what they’ve delivered with the sequel trilogy

I hope the rumors of her getting replaced are true

I see people are taking this quote out of context and running with it.

She clearly is referencing the fact that there specifically was no source material for the sequel trilogy. You do realize that George Lucas himself never considered the EU canon, and was not even adapting it himself when he was developing the sequel trilogy. Not to mention there ARE a ton of parallels to Dark Empire in the ST, especially now that Palps is returning. But the point of her statement was that they have creative freedom because there was no CANON account of what the sequel trilogy is that could simply be adapted. It's like cracking the story for a new chapter of the bible. Not easy.

Now sure, Kennedy is not a Star Wars lore expert, no-- frankly it's not her job to be and that's not why Lucas hired her in the first place. Fiege is a unicorn, the fact that fans expect seasoned producers with his level of nerdiness to grow on trees just shows how out of touch they are with the industry they can't stop talking about.

It's also funny to me that the people demanding Kennedy's head refuse to give her an ounce of credit for The Mandalorian when she was the one who put Filoni and Favreau together in the first place. That's her job, not to be the lord of Star Wars canon. She knows Dave is the guy when it comes to that, and she gave him an opportunity to cut his teeth in live action.

Remember that, years from now if/when Dave is a big shot. It will be in part because Kennedy gave him that chance to make that leap. A shot that would rarely (if ever) be afforded to most TV animation directors.

 

[Karelia]

I mean it's not like George Lucas handed over a Sequel trilogy script to them or anything....

 

[Gothamsknight]

I mean it's not like George Lucas handed over a Sequel trilogy script to them or anything....

Why do you think his trilogy would have been good? We know what he wanted to explore and it sounded incredibly boring to a lot of people. Maybe not everybody, sure, but after the prequels I promise you a ton of people wouldn't have wanted it. Kids dont want to watch stories about micro organisms. They want adventure and lucasfilm has succeeded with that with the amount of kids who love Rey

 

[Karelia]

I'm not saying it would have been... I'm just saying they had source material from the main man George and plenty of best selling authors they could have based the movies off of. Regardless of whether it's "canon" or not. George would take things from the EU and use it all the time.

 

[Gothamsknight]

I'm not saying it would have been... I'm just saying they had source material from the main man George and plenty of best selling authors they could have based the movies off of. Regardless of whether it's "canon" or not. George would take things from the EU and use it all the time.

Lucasfilm has already taken small things from the old EU. In my personal opinion, I think erasing the old EU was a smart choice. It would have limited directors and at least they can start with a blank slate and pick and choose.

 

[Karelia]

Yeah, I understand that. It makes sense why they did it, but the outcome of this trilogy has been pretty bland overall and dissatisfying to a lot of fans. Characterization of Luke was just awful to me. And Rey hasn't been that interesting of a character. Kylo is the only one remotely interesting to me. What is the point of this sequel? It just feels very incoherent to me.

I'm just glad The Mandalorian has been good. Hopefully Episode 9 is, but my expectations are really low. Which might not be a bad thing.

 

[Gothamsknight]

I personally find Rey and Kylo to be the most compelling characters since the OT. I'm 26 so I grew up just as the prequels were coming out and even though I do defend those movies even though they aren't great films, I can't connect with any characters with them. With Rey, I felt immediately attached to her in a way I haven't felt since I first saw Luke. We all have different opinions though, so that's me. I think despite last Jedi being divisive, Lucas film still has accomplished making new compelling characters. I loved force awakens, liked last jedi, and Im through the roof with hype for TROS. I also love the Mandalorian.

 

[BatLobster]

I mean it's not like George Lucas handed over a Sequel trilogy script to them or anything....

That's correct. He didn't hand them any scripts. He handed them very loose outlines, which he admitted had lots of gaps that needed to be filled. These bare-bones outlines, again, were not at all adaptations of the EU. As evidenced by the fact that most of the EU was written before the prequels, and what we do know of Lucas' original idea was that it was going to dive deep into midichlorians...so, yeah. Cherry-picking aspects of the EU is not the same as adapting. George canonizing planet names, or little things here and there from the EU does not equate to wholesale endorsement of it. It is why he didn't allow writers to write any prequel material in the 90s. He knew he was determined to make those films, and wanted to create all of that lore himself. The only reason he allowed the EU to exist in the first place is he truly believed he was never going to make VII, VIII and IX. Hence they had to turn it into Legends when it came to pass. That's what Kennedy meant. That there was never a definitive set course for the ST. You would think that would be common knowledge by now. She could've worded it better, but alas, it's red meat for click-baiters.

It was also Bob Iger's ultimate decision to move away from Lucas' ideas in favor of something more familiar for TFA. I find it interesting how people are always so quick to blame Kennedy for everything when Iger has had his hand in a lot of the high-level decisions. Kennedy had accepted the role before the Disney sale happened. George's plan was likely that he was going to retire, but still call the shots from the sidelines on the ST. Then Disney came knocking with the cash. That completely changed the dynamic of everything, because once he signed the dotted line, he no longer owned it. That was his decision. It meant that Kennedy had a new boss that she had to answer to. A boss that needed a return on his 4 billion dollar investment and didn't want to relaunch the franchise by tripling down on one of the most controversial aspects of the (at the time) widely reviled prequels.

I understand people are upset that the ST hasn't been satisfying for them, and that's okay if you feel that way, but if the assessment of the situation is "Kathleen Kennedy is a moron"-- I'm sorry but that is a display of ignorance. That's what it is.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Empire - Star Wars: Colin Trevorrow On His Rise Of Skywalker Writing Credit And His Last Jedi Contribution – Exclusive

Talking exclusively to Empire, Trevorrow explained his feelings about his name in the film's credits. "I’m not sure anyone who chooses the creative life should expect things. But I’m grateful to JJ [Abrams] for embracing some of our ideas. It’s exciting that fans will get to see the moments that felt essential to all of us."

Abrams, who took over co-writing and shooting the movie, went in some significantly different directions, including a return for a classic character. "Bringing back the Emperor was an idea JJ brought to the table when he came on board," Trevorrow says. "It’s honestly something I never considered. I commend him for it. This was a tough story to unlock, and he found the key."

He's more guarded when asked about his specific work on the script. "That’s not my place, especially right now," says Trevorrow. "I know how hard this crew has worked over the past two years, a lot of them are working with us now on Jurassic. I want to support them as they put this film out into the world. In the end, I’m just proud to have my name in space."

Another Star Wars filmmaker, Rian Johnson, incorporated one of Trevorrow's suggestions into his own movie, The Last Jedi, working from a concept that the Jurassic World director had looked to include himself. "I just asked Rian if he could include a little moment where Rey and Poe meet for the first time," he says. "They’re such beloved characters, it felt right for them to have some history in the next movie. I thought the way he did it was perfect.

 

[Marvolo]

If Rian wasnt already planning to have a scene in which Rey and Poe meet...

 

[BatLobster]

I mean...technically the scene in TLJ overwrote established canon, as they meet in the TFA novelization.

I don't know, it's a no-win situation. They really should have met on-screen in TFA. You could have literally had the same "I'm Rey", "I know" scene happen before Rey leaves for Ahch-To in TFA and it would've played perfectly.

It's cool that Colin is being gracious about everything though. Curious which of his ideas survived the rewrite.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

J. J. Abrams: "When you look at this as nine chapters of a story, perhaps the weirder thing would be if Palpatine didn’t return. You just look at what he talks about, who he is, how important he is, what the story is — strangely, his absence entirely from the third trilogy would be conspicuous. It would be very weird. That’s not to say there was a bible and we knew what happens at every step. But when Larry Kasdan and I worked on The Force Awakens, we didn’t do it in a vacuum. We very purposely looked at what came before. We chose to tell a story that touches upon specific things and themes and ideas that we’ve seen before, to begin a new story. But we examined all that came before to ask where does this feel like it’s going? So there were discussions about that at the time. Yet, like any beginning, you want to put the threads in, but you don’t want to necessarily be literal about everything. And then when Rian [Johnson] was brought on to do The Last Jedi, we met and we talked about things and he wrote his story. And when I read it the script, I realized this didn’t get in the way of anything Larry and I talked about that I thought I’d get to. There were some very specific things we did get to do in this movie that we were laughing and going, 'Oh my god, we’re finally doing that thing we talked about five years ago.'" "There are things from that [The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens] book that we came close to finally doing for sure. But the specifics of Palpatine? I wasn’t supposed to do this movie. So I had a couple of years off. So when Kathleen Kennedy called and I got back on that train, I started asking where does this go? So, suddenly, we were there having to do it. The rubber was hitting the road. So, we went back to the threads that were exciting to us and then we found new ones." "I will say, without giving anything away, knowing this movie is an ending is, for me infinitely more challenging than a beginning. We knew we needed to provide answers. And while there may be some things that aren’t entirely demystified by the end of it, we wanted to make sure people left feeling that they were satisfied. So I hope, on a number of issues, people will leave and feel like that it’s a true ending and not an advertising ploy. We really are bringing it to an end." (November 25, 2019)

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

J. J. Abrams: "This movie [Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker] is not just the end of three films, it's the end of nine films so we had to not just consider but we had to really analyze and absorb all of the eight films that preceded us. I don't think any last chapter of a book is necessarily paying homage to the prior chapters…it's using the DNA of the story to bring an inevitability to the end." "I think my favorite scene from the prequels is…when the Emperor is telling Anakin the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise. Yeah, there's just something about that scene - there's just two people sitting there, it's visually interesting but I just think Ian [McDiarmid]'s performance in it is spectacular." (November 26, 2019)





J. J. Abrams: "[Duel of the Fates] is an incredible score. I remember...the reason I didn't love [the scene] was only because I remember the posters that advertised Darth Maul, you know, the feel of, 'Oh my god here we go.' And then it was over. And I know in the expanded universe [Maul] lived on with those spidery legs and everything but I will tell you that it just was over too quickly - this character that I thought, 'Here we go with the beginning of something that will take me somewhere.' I just remember when it ended...like, what [that's it]? I mean the scene is amazing." (November 26, 2019)

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Esquire - J.J. Abrams Opens Up About Finishing The Rise of Skywalker and What He Really Thinks of Baby Yoda

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

J. J. Abrams: “[Finn's history] is part of the story of this one. And it was alluded to in Episode VII, but there’s a bit more light shed on that in this one.” “I would say that each of the characters get more light shed on their histories. I’m not saying we get full, exhaustive downloads on all of their childhoods and every major step that got them to where they are. But there are a lot of questions about Finn’s past, about Poe’s past, obviously Rey and Kylo, and then some of the new characters we meet.” “We went into this movie very much in the mindset that this has to be conclusive. It has to. You have to get some answers. You have to learn some things.” “For me personally, the fun of it is the excitement of what comes next, what comes down the line. It makes beginnings tantalizing and exciting because hopefully the audience will feel the same feeling you have, which is, Ooh, I think I know where this is going. Let’s see how we get there.” “Endings are very difficult because they need to take everything that’s come before, in this case eight films prior, and draw it to a close. So I wanted to make sure in addition to the central story, the main character or characters, I wanted to make sure that you felt that when you were done with this film, you felt like you had some more insight into all of them. That was really important to us.” (December 2, 2019)

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

J. J. Abrams: “[Rey and Kylo Ren are] stronger, but because each is stronger, so is their adversary. [The characters are] connected in this profound way, drawn to each other, curious about each other, knowledgeable about each other. They also are, by definition, working on opposite sides of things. And so the dichotomy of those characters is the thing that, for me, is most fascinating.” “I look back at what Daisy [Ridley] did in The Force Awakens, and I thought her work was exceptional. She’s so damn talented. But I look at what she’s done in this film, and I’m so awestruck by her maturity and her nuance and the power that she brought to this part. As challenging as I knew this movie was going to be for me as a director, I also knew it was going to be extraordinarily challenging for her. And she exceeded my wildest dreams of what she might do.” “Adam [Driver], as well, goes to a far deeper, more interesting, compelling, and subtle place with his character. When we met Kylo, he was almost like a bit of an adolescent. He would sort of rage. He aspired to a kind of power and control, but he was out of control. [In The Rise of Skywalker he’s] much more centered, no less broken, but far more controlled. Having assumed the position of Supreme Leader, he comes to the story a much more mature figure while still, in his own way, raging.” “If you compare [Kylo] with Rey, they both have this kind of confidence in their position, and yet the stakes have only grown greater. The challenge has only grown more significant. They’re both in brand-new and yet similar situations.” “No, [there’s no East Asian ‘Red Thread of Fate’ marking Rey and Kylo as destined lovers as some fans have speculated]. That is not something that we incorporated.” (December 3, 2019)

 

[TheVileOne]

George Lucas himself never gave a **** about the EU and constantly contradicted it.

The prequels also worked from his source material and the fans ****ted on them and that's largely the reason why he sold the franchise off. Fans hurt his feelings.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Variety - ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’: Finn and Poe Aren’t Boyfriends, but J.J. Abrams Hints at LGBTQ Representation


From Q&A at CCXP Brazil 2019

Q: Have you ever been tempted to include some kind of crazy fan theory into it?
J. J. Abrams: Well the fans of Star Wars are so passionate and they are so diverse in their attitudes, in their points of view, what they love, what they hate, you know, they are incredibly passionate. So the amazing sort of hive mind of the Star Wars fan is sort of like every base is covered, every idea, every piece of analysis - everything is done. So in a way almost anything you do include is likely already a fan theory, but it's incredible when I have read some that are really smart I get inspired and reminded how wonderful the Star Wars fans are.

Answer to unknown question (probably about Palpatine I guess) follows:
J. J. Abrams: "Well I won't ruin anything, you'll see the movie hopefully and see the story, but I will say that having Ian [McDiarmid] back, having that character, as you'll see is such an extraordinary power and it's just such a wonderful thing to get to return to so what I can't wait for you to see is how that character - how and why that character is - and what it means for these characters."

Answer to unknown question (probably about the balance of the Force or Chosen One prophecy I guess) follows:
J. J. Abrams: "It's something that we talked about quite a bit in the development of this story: the balance of the Force - frankly like the balance of anything - is hard fought and must be maintained. It's not something that happens and is a permanent thing - you can not take that for granted. And so the story of balance in an on-going, evolving story."





LA VOZ DE GALICIA - JJ Abrams: «I would not have done a" Star Wars "again without being able to contribute my vision as director»

New York Times - The Battle for ‘Star Wars’
A creative shake-up, last-minute rewrites and a director not known for great endings: J.J. Abrams and company get real about the making of “The Rise of Skywalker.”

J.J. Abrams knows what audiences think of him. “I’ve never been great at endings,” the filmmaker said just hours after delivering a finished version of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” With some hesitation, Abrams added, “I don’t actually think I’m good at anything, but I know how to begin a story. Ending a story is tough.”

So when Abrams was once again approached, amid a last-minute creative shake-up, about taking on “The Rise of Skywalker,” he balked. To be considered a success, the new movie must satisfy a seemingly impossible array of demands: It has to wrap up the current trilogy while tying together the many themes and plotlines of its eight predecessors while — oh, yes — working as a complete story on its own. For those same intimidating reasons, Abrams accepted the assignment. “Sticking this landing is one of the harder jobs that I could have taken,” he said. “But that was why it felt worthy of saying yes.”

Amid the frantic casting, writing and construction needed to get “The Force Awakens” underway, Kennedy went to Abrams with a further proposition: In addition to Episode VII, would he like to tackle Episodes VIII and IX as well? Abrams’s response was succinct: “I was like, ‘Are. You. Crazy?’” he recalled. Kennedy acknowledged that Abrams had enough on his plate. “It was pretty obvious it was so overwhelming,” she said.

“The Last Jedi,” released in 2017, was also a success. But each time it addressed one of several cliffhangers left dangling from “The Force Awakens” — what would happen when Rey returned Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber to him? who were her parents? who was the nefarious Supreme Leader Snoke? — Johnson’s movie seemed to say: the answers to these questions aren’t as important as you think.

Abrams praised “The Last Jedi” for being “full of surprises and subversion and all sorts of bold choices.”

“On the other hand,” he added, “it’s a bit of a meta approach to the story. I don’t think that people go to ‘Star Wars’ to be told, ‘This doesn’t matter.’”

Even so, Abrams said “The Last Jedi” laid the groundwork for “The Rise of Skywalker” and “a story that I think needed a pendulum swing in one direction in order to swing in the other.”

With the clock already ticking on a planned 2019 release for Episode IX, Abrams was the only logical choice to take over — and even more reluctant than he was with “The Force Awakens.” On that movie, he said, “we got away by the skin of our teeth. Why the hell would I go back? Am I a moron to tempt fate a second time?” Abrams said he took the job knowing he’d be working “in an accelerated way from the beginning,” with three fewer months for postproduction than he had on “The Force Awakens.”

“I’m not saying it’s like the closest that ‘Star Wars’ will ever get to being live TV,” he said, “but it was not leisurely.”

But when it was announced that Abrams was indeed returning, his actors breathed sighs of relief. “I cried,” Ridley said, explaining that the director brought a comforting sense of structure and security. Boyega said he was glad that Abrams would get to finish the tale he’d begun in Episode VII. “Even as a normal person in the audience, I wanted to see where that story was going,” Boyega said.

Abrams, who brought in the “Argo” screenwriter Terrio as his writing partner, faced significant challenges on “The Rise of Skywalker.” Among them, the film had to provide a proper send-off for Carrie Fisher, who died in 2016. As Leia, Fisher had been an integral element of “Star Wars,” an embodiment of its hopefulness and its grit, and her story arc had not been finished by the end of “The Last Jedi.” Abrams’s solution was to draw on unused footage that Fisher had shot for “The Force Awakens.” “The idea of continuing the story without Leia was an impossibility,” he said. “There was no way we were going to do a digital Leia. There was no way we would, of course, ever recast it. But we couldn’t do it without her.”

The filmmakers tried to shield the actors where possible from a behind-the-scenes process in which major plot elements and whole swaths of dialogue were being reworked up to and on the days they were filmed.

As Terrio explained, “It’s a war to do a movie like this, and every day you have to get up and go to the front again. And maybe the day before, the battle didn’t go so well, but you have to get up with great optimism and enthusiasm to do it again.”

Abrams makes no apologies for this seat-of-the-pants approach. “As we did on ‘Force Awakens,’” he said, “while we’re shooting, we’re reconsidering things, changing some significant story points going back to ideas that we had loved but put away. That process never stopped.”

“Some people can say, oh, that sounds like it’s crazy,” Abrams said. “But when you have the better idea, it doesn’t matter when it is — you have to try it.”

Why does the Skywalker saga have to end at all? Abrams pointed back to Lucas’s own ever-evolving plans for the “Star Wars” series and to a certain feeling of symmetry: If each previous set of films was its own trilogy, shouldn’t they all come together in a trilogy of trilogies? “Can it go on?” Abrams said. “Of course it can go on. But there’s something bold about saying this is what the story should be.”

As he slyly acknowledged, “Any great ending is a new beginning on some level.” But what the future of “Star Wars” might look like without its foundational narrative is something Abrams — who struck a lucrative overall deal with WarnerMedia in September — was in no hurry to envision. “I didn’t design that, so I don’t know,” he said.

It’s Kennedy’s responsibility to determine what comes after the final Skywalker chapter and, as she put it, “It doesn’t have to end.” But part of living up to Lucas’s vision, she said, was looking beyond it. “We’re all custodians of something that George created, and we’re trying to do the best we possibly can,” Kennedy said, adding that it was important to “recognize and honor what it is that he created — and move on. I think we’re ready to move on.”

And who knows? Maybe Abrams might even be the one to tell that story. “I just need one night’s sleep,” he said.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Kathleen Kennedy is a moron and this quote just shows her level of incompetence

Guess she didn’t bother to research all the EU comics and novels that have been out since the 90s, most of which is thousands times better than what they’ve delivered with the sequel trilogy

I hope the rumors of her getting replaced are true

Considering how universally trashed everything EU was after NJO this is an interesting take.

 

[Elayis]

It's funny that Abrams' talks about a "pendulum swing" and moving the story in a new direction, but what from we know (officially) about TRoS it just feels like The Force Awakens: Chapter 2. Lando and Palpatine are back, the Death Star is back, I'm not getting any sense of the character's storylines being massively changed from what they would be if TLJ didn't exist. Johnson's major addition to the cast (Rose) seems to have been sidelined.

There's nothing about what's been shown that I find shocking or unexpected, it all feels very much in line with Abrams' usual nostalgia-reliant storytelling. I'm almost certain that Keri Russell's character is Rey's mother, for instance.

It all feels very safe and predictable, which is disappointing given the blank slate TLJ gave them.

 

[Frodo]

It's funny that Abrams' talks about a "pendulum swing" and moving the story in a new direction, but what from we know (officially) about TRoS it just feels like The Force Awakens: Chapter 2. Lando and Palpatine are back, the Death Star is back, I'm not getting any sense of the character's storylines being massively changed from what they would be if TLJ didn't exist. Johnson's major addition to the cast (Rose) seems to have been sidelined.

There's nothing about what's been shown that I find shocking or unexpected, it all feels very much in line with Abrams' usual nostalgia-reliant storytelling. I'm almost certain that Keri Russell's character is Rey's mother, for instance.

It all feels very safe and predictable, which is disappointing given the blank slate TLJ gave them.

I think Pendulum swinging statement is kinda vague in the context of his full statement, but I suspect he's saying, is that Johnson had some good ideas, but that the execution of the narrative i.e. " meta narrative" and the message" this doesn't matter" may have gone too far. Further, that TROS is swinging in the opposite direction of the execution of the narrative and the message of the film in order to end the story.

I actually don't disagree with him in those respects with TLJ. At the same time , I agree with you that he's going back to the well and the film is a direct sequel to TFA , which I pretty expected it to be.

He didn't want to tread on TLJ ground either way because both sides of fandom would freak out. So he went back to his first film and is seemingly wrapping up loose ends that Johnson didn't touch, in addition to bringing back the characters he probably would have brought back had he done both episode 8 and 9.

 

[BatLobster]

I think that's likely along the lines of what he means, although I do think TFA absolutely has a meta aspects to its story too, even if it maybe wasn't intended. TFA is what kind of started that whole trajectory, what with the main antagonist being a self-aware character who knows the history of the galaxy and struggles with being in the shadow of Darth Vader, and a main hero who is essentially a Star Wars 'fan' who 'collects' old Star Wars stuff.

I think that aspect of it just can't really be helped when you're having directors step in the shoes of this legacy so many years later. I think it inevitably starts becoming ABOUT Star Wars.

Like Terrio said in that Empire interview though, TLJ does the thing "that all great second acts do-- create the antithesis". I think that's really the pendulum swing that J.J. is referring to. It puts them in a position to then create the synthesis, for the trilogy and the saga as a whole. And going full circle to threads from the original film is basically trilogy 101 stuff.

Sometimes I really think that the proliferation of the Marvel formula ala "TV for film" has caused a lot of people to forget how trilogies are supposed to work. If only they remembered Randy's wisdom..

 

[antsman41]

Randy was the best.