J.J. Abrams explains why The Rise of Skywalker had to return to the Death Star. The trailers and TV spots for the upcoming highly anticipated movie have brought forth a lot of questions from Star Wars fans while showing off quite a bit from the final installment in the Skywalker Saga. However, looks can be deceiving. "The (trailers) that have come out are scratching the surface of what the movie is," according to Abrams, who isn't about to spoil anything now.

Emperor Palpatine is back in The Rise of Skywalker, though we're not entirely sure how he came back. There are a lot of fan theories floating around and the Death Star seems to fit into all of them when it comes to Palpatine. While J.J. Abrams won't give anything away, he did explain why it was important to return to the Death Star. He had this to say.

"It felt like going into the haunted house, the place that you have to go to. This is a story of people having to grapple with the burden the prior generation dumps on those that follow. So literally returning to this wreck of the past and having to fight it out felt like an obvious metaphor, but also felt incredibly cinematic."

Thinking of the Death Star like a haunted house feels right for The Rise of Skywalker. Perhaps Emperor Palpatine has been haunting the place for the past few decades. Regardless, even though there is so much pressure to get the movie right, it was a lot easier to do than 2015's The Force Awakens, according to J.J. Abrams. As it turns out, almost everything was easier this time around. Abrams explains.

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"We had more reshoots on Episode VII than this one. We had more story adjustments on VII than this one. We didn't know if these characters would work, if the actors would be able to carry a Star Wars movie. There were a lot of things we didn't know. On this, we knew who and what worked, and everyone is doing the best work I've ever seen anyone do. But the ambition of this movie is far greater than Force Awakens. What we set out to do was far more challenging. Everything is exponentially larger on this."

It makes sense that it would be easier for J.J. Abrams, along with the cast and crew. The Rise of Skywalker is the third and final installment in the trilogy and the second movie that Abrams is behind the camera for. While Star Wars fans have some pretty major expectations, the director seems to feel confident that they have made the best movie that they possibly could, and the trailers seem to be teasing something pretty major.

The Rise of Skywalker opens in theaters on December 20th. While the trailers appear to show off quite a bit, J.J. Abrams claims that we really haven't seen anything just yet, which will lead to more excitement, now that we're a month away from seeing the movie. There's a lot for fans to look forward to now. The interview with Abrams was originally conducted by Entertainment Weekly.

Kevin Burwick at Movieweb
Kevin Burwick