JJ Abrams needed to be convinced to include one of the most nostalgic scenes of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” in the final version of the film.
What happened:
- “Rise of Skywalker” composter John Williams revealed in the digital features that Abrams needed to be convinced to include a scene where Luke Skywalker lifts the X-Wing out of the water in front of Rey, according to ComicBook.com.
- Williams said: “Yoda lifts (the X-wing) in ‘The Empire Strikes Back.’ Ramiro Belgardt, the music editor, he said ‘(the scene of Luke lifting the X-Wing) should be exactly the music that we had for Yoda. And Actually, J.J. questioned it, he said ‘Well, is that, are we doing that right?’ And everybody said ‘Oh yes, it has to be. You know, the fans will all know.’”
- Williams added: “So I went back to the score of ‘Empire Strikes Back,’ to get those bars exactly out of them. That actual little central piece of taking the ship up is exactly as we had it before.”
Is there a JJ Abrams cut?
- In the immediate aftermath of “The Rise of Skywalker,” rumors circulated that Lucasfilm and Disney cut down Abrams’ original version for the film, which I wrote about for the Deseret News.
- But Greg Grunberg — a longtime friend of Abrams — told The Hollywood Reporter there is no alternate version of the film.
- Grunberg said: “I’m being completely honest here, but not once did he ever tell me that there was any pressure on him to cut things out. Personally, I don’t think there’s any truth to that, and I would be surprised if there’s a ‘J.J. cut.’ Every movie goes through a series of cuts; it’s just the nature of it. I don’t buy into it at all.”