Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Director J.J. Abrams Promises Film Won’t Be A Rehash

There might be a whole lot of excitement building up over Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, however, there some fans still have this underlying concern that the upcoming film might end up being much too similar to its equivalent film in the original trilogy, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. After all, the film is being directed by J.J. Abrams, the same filmmaker in charge of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, an entry which drew flak for being too much like a rehash of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.

In an interview with Fandango during the 2019 Star Wars Celebration Chicago last weekend, Abrams addressed these complaints against The Force Awakens, saying that he is well aware of fans concerns that the film came across a bit too derivative. According to the director, he didn't intend for TFA to be a rehash of A New Hope, however, Abrams says that the Hero's journey archetype of storytelling often leaves a few similarities, especially during the beginning of the story.

"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," Abrams admitted.

Seeing these concerns, Abrams promises that The Rise of Skywalker won't feel the same way, saying that the film won't be noticeably just influenced by one film.

"We very much wanted to make sure that we were not somehow inadvertently being so influenced by one thing, however the job of this film is to be the end of nine films," Abrams added. "So we can't ignore the fact that we come from Episodes I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VI, and VIII. So it wasn't about, 'Let's choose that one. Let's do a riff on that,' it was more, 'How do these stories culminate,' and that was our job."

It's seems like a difficult job, but we definitely can't wait to see how Episode IX culminates the past 40 years of the Star Wars franchise.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker premieres December 20, 2019.

Read: Could Rey's Parents Have Actually Been In Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker's Trailer?