Imagine being called upon to round out The Illiad and The Odyssey? That’s the way I think about J.J. Abrams’ task as he prepares Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalkerto debut in December.
“Endings are the thing that scare me the most,” admits J.J. Abrams, which means co-writing and directing Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker must have been at least a little terrifying.
After all, there has arguably never been a film tasked with wrapping up more stories that span a longer cinematic time period than Skywalker. The film not only finishes Abrams’ Disney-produced trilogy that launched with 2015’s The Force Awakens, but also George Lucas’ six previous “Episode” films that began with 1977’s A New Hope. So that’s 42 years of blockbuster sci-fi adventures somehow concluding in one film.
“This is about bringing this thing to a close in a way that is emotional and meaningful and also satisfying in terms of actually answering [as many] questions as possible,” Abrams tells EW in its November issue. “So if years from now, someone’s watching these movies, all nine of them, they’re watching a story that is as cohesive as possible.”
Can You Please Everyone?
That’s easier said than done. Each of the original three movies had folks who derided them. And each of the three trilogies has their detractors. And, while — taken as a whole — Star Wars set the epoch’s standard for storytelling, Abrams must know that there’s simply no way to please everyone.
EW.com added:
That said, Abrams noted that in writing the film (along with Chris Terrio), the filmmaker left room for inspiration and the unexpected. “While there were many things that were planned for and discussed — George Lucas himself said when he created this he saw it as three, three-act plays — that doesn’t mean there isn’t discovery, that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that come up that make you realize, ‘Oh, here’s an opportunity,’” adds Abrams, who returned to helm the final Skywalker Saga chapter after directing 2015’s The Force Awakens. “It also doesn’t mean that there’s a list of payoffs that we have to do because of setups. But we also were very much aware this is the end of the trilogy and it needs to satisfy. We went into this thing knowing it has to be an ending. We’re not screwing around.”
Thank the Maker for that…
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A graduate of Boston and Northeastern universities, John Bishop, became the beat reporter for BostonBruins.com before the B’s 2006-07 hockey season. While with the Bruins, “Bish” traveled North America and Europe to cover the Black & Gold’s every move via laptop, blog, and smartphone. The co-author of two books, Bygone Boston and Full 60 to History: The Inside Story of the 2011 Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins, John covered the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010 and the B’s 2011 championship run and banner raising before taking a faculty/communications position at a prep school outside Boston in 2013. He lives with his wife Andrea, and sons Jack, Scott, and Luke, in central Massachusetts.
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