SALT LAKE CITY – “Star Wars” director J.J. Abrams doesn’t look back at “The Last Jedi” with a negative light, despite widespread criticism of the film.
Abrams told Entertainment Tonight Canada that the eighth “Star Wars” film “didn’t really derail anything” in his plans for the sequel trilogy, which has now earned the name the Age of Resistance.
“The story that we’re telling, the story that we started to conceive when we did ‘Force Awakens’ was allowed to continue,” Abrams told Entertainment Tonight Canada. “Episode eight didn’t really derail anything that we were thinking about.”
Abrams said “Rise of Skywalker” will be a little different than the previous two films in the sequel trilogy, through, because Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) will work together for an adventure.
In each of the previous films, the three main stars ventured on their own missions before coming back together.
“But I will say the fun of this movie is that these characters are all together on this adventure as a group,” Abrams said. “That’s the thing I was most excited about, to see the dynamic between these characters that these amazing actors play on this desperate seat of your pants adventure. That to me was the thing that was the most fun — having the group together.”
“Rise of Skywalker” released its latest trailer earlier this week, showing glimpses of the original and prequel “Star Wars” trilogies before transitioning to new clips, one of which showed Rey, Finn and Poe working together.
“The Last Jedi” is one of the worst-rated “Star Wars” films in the franchise. It currently holds a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a 44% from fans. The Deseret News gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars.