After 40 years and nine films— J.J. Abrams is putting the final bookend on Star Wars’ Skywalker Saga with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Back in 1977— George Lucas gave the world, A New Hope. Astonished fans across generations watched Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) leave the Tatooine desert to fulfill his destiny of becoming a Jedi master.
Now, more than four decades later — the Resistance, Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), and Poe (Oscar Issac) will face the First Order for the final time as the conflict between the Jedi and the Sith collides.
Ahead of The Rise of Skywalker’s debut, blackfilm.com sat in on a press conference moderated by Ava DuVernay — where writer/director J.J. Abrams, producer Kathleen Kennedy, and the entire cast reflected on a franchise that has transcended generations and changed filmmaking forever.
“The difference between my first day on The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker was that the pressure shifted,” Abrams told DuVernay. “We didn’t know at the beginning of Force Awakens what it would look like to have Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Issac, and John Boyega. We had to figure it out. By the time we got to our first day on Rise of Skywalker, we knew those things were working; what we didn’t know what everything else. This is wrapping up not one film, not three films but nine. The responsibility was significant and the scale of this movie is pretty enormous. We knew that none of this would matter if you didn’t care deeply.”
For Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy — knowing how deeply Abrams cared about this story and its characters made him the obvious choice for this grand finale. “The one thing I know about Star Wars and these tentpole movies is that you need this unique combination of dramatic storytelling, gravitas, and a great sense of humor,” she explained. “I think there are few filmmakers that really embody all of those things and also have the capability to manage something this huge — and J.J. was my first choice.”
When it came to undertaking such a massive endeavor — Abrams knew there were a few key things he needed. “Since we had worked on Force Awakens, we’d talked about quite a few things back in the day,” Abrams explained. “It was a bit of pickup on where we left off. The fact is, what Rian Johnson had done in Last Jedi set up some things that were wonderful for this story. The cast was separated for the entire movie. Rise of Skywalker was the first time the entire group was together. Chris [Terrio] and I knew immediately that we wanted to tell a group adventure story. There are some very specific things that we were drawn to immediately.”
When Chris Terrio received that faithful call from Abrams asking him co-write Rise of Skywalker, it was more than a dream come true. “J.J, called me — I was in a screening, and he’d been calling me, but I didn’t have his number in my phone,” the Argo scribe told DuVernay. “I got his message and called him back, and he said, ‘Hey, do you want to write Episode IX with me?’ He didn’t Star Wars. So for a good eight-minutes, I let myself leap into the air until I thought, ‘My God — we have to land this vehicle somehow. We have to land the biggest star destroyer in the world on the head of a needle.’ Then we got to work. I live in New York, but I came out to L.A. and J.J., and I just started at Bad Robot in this room with whiteboards. Eventually, the boards became a word document, and that document became the script.”
Once the story’s structure came together, Abrams began extending his hand to his frequent collaborators, including The Americans actress, Keri Russell, who stars as a new character named Zorii Bliss. “J.J. emailed me and was like, ‘Do you want to be in Star Wars?’ I was like ‘Uh, yeah,'” Russell quipped. “Then he told me about the idea for Zorii’s mask, and I loved the mask. That’s my fantasy dream sequence that I could see everyone in the super tough version of myself, but no one can see me. It’s a real power play since no one can really see what you’re thinking. I’ve known J.J. for so long, and I feel like we have a shorthand, and we speak the same language. I just felt like he got to finish a piece of history, and he did such a great job.”
Russell isn’t the only newcomer in The Rise of Skywalker — relative newcomer, Naomi Ackie is bringing a mysterious newcomer named Jannah to the Resistance’s fight. “I prepared for Jannah through her physicality,” Ackie revealed. “Jannah’s strength is in her body. She’s a very grounded character. When I began training, that’s when I started to feel like, ‘OK, I got this.’ I was doing pull-ups and horse training. With that came a confidence that I hadn’t previously experienced. Then working with J.J. and figuring out what the balance was between the strength of the character and also her vulnerable side. You don’t always have to be strong and fearless. Sometimes vulnerability is strength — that was really interesting. I feel like we found that by the end. Also, the movie is the most visually beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Returning to Star Wars as Rose Tico— Kelly Marie Tran was most grateful to have the late Carrie Fischer present in spirit. “It was really wonderful getting everyone back together again,” she reflected. “From the last film, there really is a bond between everyone and the new guys as well, It sounds so cheesy, and cliché and it is, but we are just like a family who was there to have fun and be part of something that was so much bigger than us as individuals. That’s a really cool thing to share with people. J.J. has talked about ending nine films, and Carrie was such a big part of all of that. So I think for me; personally, there was a lot of wanting to honor this and do right by it. I think that she’s pretty fucking incredible in this movie.”
Another beloved character that has been with the franchise since the beginning is Chewbacca. A role that Joonas Suotamo has taken over for the later Peter Mayhew. “To talk about Chewbacca, we have to go back to 1977 when George found Peter Mayhew to play this character that no one knew what it was going to be,” the Finnish actor told DuVernay. “You don’t know going into these things how it’s going to look. I think Chewbacca’s endurance has to do with Peter’s unique physicality that I inherited and tried to bring on-screen. He created this character that moves — not quite like a human. He’s very unique in the way Chewbacca appears on screen. Even if you haven’t seen Star Wars, you know that character. That’s what I’m a custodian off. When Peter passed away earlier this year, I was heartbroken, but I like to think in this film, I attempted to do him justice.”
One of the only actors to touch all aspects of the franchise has been Anthony Daniels as C-3PO. “I’m so close to it,” Daniels explained of his relationship to Star Wars. “It’s like having your nose up against the planet. You can’t see how big that planet is. Gradually now, I’m beginning to get a perspective on it, and that comes with talking to fans. — to people who say what Star Wars has meant to them over the years.”
For prolific actor Richard E. Grant, joining the franchise at this late stage was still incredibly meaningful. “Having seen the first Star Wars as a theater student when I was 20 years old and even before the young cast were even born, it’s an extraordinarily emotional thing to see — just the passing of time,” he explained. “It felt like everything I’ve read in a Bible, Greek mythology — all rolled into one in this extraordinary summation of this whole story that delivers an emotional wallop at the end that I was totally unprepared for.”
Seeing out the conclusion of Lando Calrissian, a character he first portrayed in 1983’s Return of the Jedi, veteran actor Billy Dee Williams couldn’t imagine anyone else throwing on the Resistance general’s cape. “I didn’t watch any of the old stuff to get back to Lando. I just jumped right in,” the Mahogany actor explained. “The whole idea for me was that I just have a lot of admiration for this young man — J.J. Abrams. When I worked with George, there was an opportunity to work with somebody extraordinary, and here again, I have the opportunity to work with somebody who is really remarkable. We worked together on Lost — I played myself playing a killer — which I thought was a very interesting idea. I thought, ‘This guy is really crazy — fabulously crazy.’ This has been a great pleasure for me coming back to do Lando. I didn’t think that it would happen, I just wrote it off. I said, ‘I did what I had to do, and that was it.’ But, when I got the call from J.J. and even when we met, I just sat there, and I just chuckled because I thought this was a gift.”
For Oscar Issac — returning to Poe for the third time provided him with the opportunity to dust the shine off of his character a bit. “Poe has always been a bit of a wildcard of energy in terms of figuring out where he fits in the story and what story is being told,” Issac explained to the When They See Us director. “I think with this one — J.J. and I talked a bit. I remember J.J. being excited about dirtying up the squeaky fly boy image that Poe’s had for a while and revealing a bit more of his personality. That really comes out because he’s been taken away from his little box in space, and he gets to join his friends. You really get to see the interaction of the three and the hope that he brings. He has a relentless, almost aggressive optimism, and that gets tested. Also, the way that we approached shooting a lot of these scenes — there was a looseness to it. There were things shot in big beautiful choreographed takes that were just astounding to watch. That kind of trust that allowed a real spark of vitality.”
Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren has been another wildcard of the Skywalker Saga — especially as he’s continued to battle with his identity. “I think when people are actively trying to deny a certain part of their lives, they can do it pretty successfully,” the Marriage Story actor emphasized. “However, what’s happening around them, brings it out in them. So, I think Kylo is Ben Solo— but it’s not something we actively talked about playing. However, it definitely is a thought to have. I think that’s a testament to the writing. From the beginning with the first film being called Force Awakens, it was the light and the dark awakening. With J.J. even in those first meetings talking about someone who is unformed and not in control of his fallacies. It totally echoes what’s going in the story — especially in the first one. It’s figuring out where you fit in a legacy that spans so much time.”
Then there has been the character that has led the final three films across the finish line —the Jakku orphan who has helped revitalize the Resistance. For Daisy Ridley — Rey’s journey has been as emotionally profound as it has been physically exhausting. “With the physical stuff, you train and train and train. Then the adrenaline helps you on the day to do the thing,” Ridley explained. “Obviously, the stamina needs to be there to do the thing. But, I will say, I was more tired emotionally because there really wasn’t a day where I was like, ‘Oh, it’s just a quick scene.’ Coming from the last one which was quite heavy, even the joyous scenes I found very strange to do. There were times when I would tell J.J., ‘I know what you’re asking, I just can’t quite get there yet.’ I think that was the most tricky thing — sustaining that emotion.”
Landing the massive vehicle certainly wasn’t an easy feat for Abrams — but he couldn’t be more proud then how it turned out. “Something like this doesn’t come around all the time, and I’m still grateful that I got the call,” Abrams reflected. “We leave in a crazy world. We live in a crazy time. Star Wars, for me, was about hope and about community. It was about the underdog and bringing people together. It’s all about hope and returning to a sense of possibility and unity. If Star Wars can’t do that for us, then I don’t know what can.”
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker premieres December 20, 2019.
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