J.J. Abrams explains how The Last Jedi influenced his approach to Star Wars: Episode IX

The Star Wars sequel saga will end this December, when Episode IX—The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters. The new Star Wars saga has been extremely profitable for Disney, but its still had its ups and downs, most famously after Episode VIII—The Last Jedi came out and received a huge amount of backlash from fans. That movie was directed by Rian Johnson, but with The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams back at the helm for Episode IX, Disney is surely hoping the final movie in the trilogy will be a little more palatable across the board.

But that doesn’t mean The Last Jedi will be forgotten. In fact, speaking to Vanity Fair, it sounds like Abrams is taking some big cues from that film. “Having seen what Rian did made me approach this from a place of instinct and gut,” he said. “I was making choices I knew I would not have made on VII, some story-wise, but more in terms of directing. I found myself feeling less like I’m going to try and do something that feels like it’s [only] true to the specifics of this franchise or the story.”

Personally, I liked The Last Jedi just fine, so I’m all for mixing up the Star Wars formula a little, if such a thing exists. But lest you worry that things are going to change too much, Adam Driver (Kylo Ren) assured Vanity Fair that certain big arcs have been in place since conception. “I knew little bits from my first meeting with J.J.,” Driver said. “An overall arc was very, not vague, the opposite, it was very clear — [there was] an end in sight even from the very beginning. The details obviously hadn’t been worked out, but we had talked about the very thing that we’d been working towards with this last one.”

Vanity Fair has a new cover story about Episode IX, which includes some splashy new shots. Caution: some of the following could constitute SPOILERS.

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But not these next two. These are just posed posed photos of Ren and Rey (Daisy Ridley):

This next one, though…

That’s Rey and Ren fighting during a downpour. They fought in the snow in The Force Awakens. Time for a new kind of condensation.

The Rise of Skywalker will also feature new characters, including Keri Russell as the mysterious scoundrel Zorri Bliss and Richard E. Grant as Allegiant General Pryde, an officer in the First Order.

Speaking of the First Order, the Knights of Ren, an elite group of warriors who follow the dark side of the Force, will feature in Episode IX:

And then we’ve got Lando, Chewie, Poe Dameron and BB-8 hanging in the Millennium Falcon:

And one final spoiler: although the trailer for Episode IX confirmed that he would be in the movie in some way, there’s a promotional image showing Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker alongside old friend R2-D2. Luke died in The Last Jedi, but I’m sure Abrams can find some way around that. Force Ghost? Flashback? We’ll find out on December 20.

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