While most Star Wars fans have a lot of confidence in J.J. Abrams' filmmaking abilities, others are a little bit concerned that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker might feel a whole lot similar to Star Wars: Return of the Jedi – after all, Abram's first Star Wars film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, felt very much like a rehash of Star Wars: A New Hope.
Sure, The Force Awakens might have successfully reinvigorated the Star Wars franchise, however, the film drew a lot of flak for having so many different nods to A New Hope that it felt like it was following the film beat for beat.
Speaking in an interview with Fandango, Abrams responds to these complaints, explaining that it was never his intention for The Force Awakens to feel too similar to A New Hope.
"We've gotten a lot of flack for people saying, 'Oh, Force Awakens was just a remake of New Hope,' and while that was something that obviously was never the intention, it was about introducing new characters [and] using the old, and there's a natural sense in any hero's journey of certain tenants will come to play," the filmmaker admitted in his interview with the site.
Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that the same thing is going to happen with The Rise of Skywalker. After all, the film has too many roles to fill to simply be a beat-by-beat copy of Return of the Jedi. First of all, The Rise of Skywalker has to close the curtain on Lucasfilm's sequel trilogy. Secondly, the film also has to culminate the forty years of the Skywalker Saga. That's too much responsibility to just copy its equivalent film in the original trilogy.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is set for release December 20.
Read: Could Rey's Parents Have Actually Been In Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker's Trailer?
Explore new topics and discover content that's right for you!
Fandoms