Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

• 1. Introduction

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  Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker carried a net budget of about $490.2 million. That made it the second most expensive film ever produced. The price tag hints at how much was riding on one movie.

  J. J. Abrams directed the film. He was closing out a nine-part saga that had run for decades. He was also finishing a trilogy whose middle chapter had already split fans. And he was doing it with a script assembled after another director had already left the project.

  What follows is the story of a production that nearly fell apart more than once. It asks how the film finally reached theaters. It also asks why its ending divided audiences between record ticket sales and a backlash sharp enough to produce its own recurring joke.

• 2. A Galaxy's Final Stand

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  A year after the Battle of Crait, the resurrected Emperor Palpatine sends a message of revenge across the galaxy. Kylo Ren tracks down a Sith wayfinder that leads him to the hidden planet Exegol. There, Palpatine reveals he was the power behind Snoke and the First Order all along. He offers Kylo his armada of Star Destroyers in exchange for killing Rey.

  Rey is training as a Jedi under Leia Organa when Poe Dameron and Finn arrive with intelligence that Palpatine is hiding on Exegol. Rey finds a reference in Luke Skywalker's notes describing a Sith wayfinder that can lead them there. She sets off for the desert planet Pasaana with Finn, Poe, Chewbacca, BB-8, and C-3PO aboard the Millennium Falcon.

  On Pasaana, Kylo forms a Force bond with Rey to track her down, arriving with his Knights of Ren. With Lando Calrissian's help, the group finds a dagger marked with Sith text, one that C-3PO's programming will not let him translate. They also find the remains of a Sith assassin named Ochi. The First Order captures the Falcon, Chewbacca, and the dagger. Rey, trying to save Chewbacca, destroys a First Order transport with an accidental burst of Force lightning, and the group flees believing Chewbacca has died.

  On the planet Kijimi, the droidsmith Babu Frik pulls the wayfinder's coordinates out of C-3PO's memory. Rey senses that Chewbacca is alive after all, held aboard Kylo's Star Destroyer. The group stages a rescue with help from the smuggler Zorii Bliss. Recovering the dagger brings back repressed memories of her parents' deaths. During a duel, Kylo tells Rey that Palpatine is her paternal grandfather. He adds that Ochi killed her parents after they hid her on Jakku to protect her from him. General Hux, revealed as the spy who tipped off Poe and Finn, frees the captured trio before Allegiant General Pryde executes him.

  The group follows the wayfinder's coordinates to a moon in the Endor system, recruiting a band of renegade stormtroopers led by Jannah along the way. Rey retrieves a second wayfinder from the wreckage of the Death Star, but Kylo destroys it and duels her again. Leia, in a dying act, distracts Kylo through the Force long enough for Rey to wound him. Guilt-stricken after sensing Leia's death, Rey heals Kylo and exiles herself to Ahch-To.

  Kylo, meanwhile, speaks with a memory of his father, Han Solo, discards his lightsaber, and reclaims the name Ben Solo. On Ahch-To, Luke's Force spirit persuades Rey to confront Palpatine and gives her Leia's lightsaber. Rey heads for Exegol in Luke's X-wing, using a wayfinder recovered from Ben's ship. She transmits her coordinates so the Resistance, now led by Poe and Finn, can follow.

  At Exegol, a weakened Palpatine goads Rey into killing him in anger so his spirit can take over her body. Ben fights past the Knights of Ren to reach her. Palpatine senses their combined power as what he calls a dyad in the Force and drains it to restore his strength. Lando arrives with reinforcements from across the galaxy, including Zorii. Palpatine fatally wounds Ben and turns his lightning on the Resistance fleet. Rey hears the voices of past Jedi and deflects the lightning back at Palpatine using Luke and Leia's lightsabers. Killing him also kills her. Ben spends his remaining Force strength reviving her, and the Resistance destroys what is left of Palpatine's forces.

  Afterward, Rey travels alone to Luke's old home on Tatooine and buries Luke and Leia's lightsabers in the sand. A passerby asks her name. Seeing the Force spirits of Luke and Leia nearby, she answers with her full name: Rey Skywalker.

• 3. A Revolving Door of Directors

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  In October 2012, George Lucas sold his production company, Lucasfilm, to the Walt Disney Company. Disney soon announced a new sequel trilogy. The following month, Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg began negotiating to write and produce either Episode VIII or Episode IX. Kinberg, Kasdan, and Michael Arndt worked together in a writers' room to map out the trilogy, though those plans never came together. Kasdan instead co-wrote Episode VII, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with Kinberg serving only as a creative consultant.

  By June 2014, Rian Johnson, the writer and director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, was announced to write a story treatment for Episode IX. In April 2017, though, Johnson denied ever writing it, calling the earlier report outdated.

  Colin Trevorrow was announced as director in August 2015, tasked with writing the script alongside his frequent collaborator Derek Connolly. Their script, titled Star Wars: Duel of the Fates after a musical theme from The Phantom Menace, survived into the final film only in pieces. It included a Sith holocron hidden in Darth Vader's castle on Mustafar and the idea of transferring Force energy between people. It also included a superlaser-equipped Star Destroyer, Lando leading a galaxy-wide rescue fleet, and Chewbacca receiving a medal. One original idea, the First Order TIE Echelon fighter, ended up surviving instead in the Galaxy's Edge theme park.

  In January 2016, Trevorrow said he was considering shooting on film and wanted to film on location in outer space using IMAX cameras. He and cinematographer John Schwartzman planned to shoot the whole movie on 65mm film, using a new processing facility Kodak had built in the UK. Trevorrow worked closely with Johnson during this period, even requesting a Rey and Poe scene be shot for The Last Jedi instead.

  The Force Awakens became the highest-grossing film of 2015. Episode IX then entered production in February 2016, a step Disney chief executive Bob Iger only vaguely confirmed. In late April 2017, Disney announced a release date of the 24th of May 2019, with filming expected to begin the following January. That August, Jack Thorne was brought in to rewrite the script.

  On the 5th of September 2017, Lucasfilm announced that Trevorrow had left the production over creative differences. The Hollywood Reporter later wrote that his working relationship with producer Kathleen Kennedy had become unmanageable. Several script drafts had failed to satisfy her, and neither was happy with Thorne's revisions. Johnson was rumored as the top replacement candidate but denied it, saying, 'it was never in the plan for me to direct Episode IX.' David Fincher held talks with the studio but ultimately declined to direct.

  J. J. Abrams, who had directed The Force Awakens, was announced as Trevorrow's replacement on the 12th of September. The release date was pushed to the 20th of December 2019. The story team met with George Lucas before drafting the new script. Abrams co-wrote it with Chris Terrio, though Trevorrow and Connolly kept their story credits. Terrio had planned to stop working on large-scale films and did not know Abrams personally before agreeing to co-write with him.

  The film was produced by Abrams' own company, Bad Robot, alongside Kathleen Kennedy and Michelle Rejwan. According to Terrio, the script had to include certain story beats the pair required, among them the redemption of Kylo Ren. Before release, the project carried the working title Black Diamond, later changed to TrIXie so the roman numeral 'IX' would appear in it. The eventual title, The Rise of Skywalker, was revealed at Star Wars Celebration in Chicago in April 2019. Until that moment, Abrams alone knew what the film would be called.

• 4. Filming Without Leia

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  Carrie Fisher died on the 27th of December 2016, before production began. Variety and Reuters both reported she had been planned for a significant role in the new film. In January 2017, Lucasfilm said there were no plans to digitally recreate her performance, unlike the approach used for Rogue One in 2016. That April, her brother Todd Fisher said she had granted her daughter, Billie Lourd, rights to use recent footage of her. A week later, though, Kathleen Kennedy said Fisher would not appear in the film at all.

  In July 2018, Abrams announced that unused footage of Fisher from The Force Awakens would help complete her story. Flashback scenes used digital de-aging for young Luke and Leia, drawn from facial shots in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Ahead of release, in November 2019, Todd Fisher said his sister 'was going to be the big payoff in the final film.' He added that 'she was going to be the last Jedi, so to speak.'

  Keri Russell entered talks in July 2018 for a role involving 'action-heavy fight scenes.' The same month brought confirmation that Billy Dee Williams would return as Lando Calrissian, his first appearance since Return of the Jedi in 1983. That gap marked one of the longest intervals between portrayals of a single character in American film history. By late August, Deadline Hollywood reported that Dominic Monaghan and Matt Smith had joined the cast in unspecified roles.

  Smith denied any involvement in 2019 before later admitting he had discussed an unrealized, 'transformative' part. The site Making Star Wars had claimed Smith was set to play a 'dark side acolyte' possessed by Palpatine. Director Shawn Levy later confirmed the rumor was accurate. He called it 'destiny fulfilled' when he cast Smith in his own film, Star Wars: Starfighter, in 2027.

  At Star Wars Celebration in April 2019, a teaser trailer revealed that Ian McDiarmid would return as Palpatine. Principal photography had already wrapped by then, so the news never leaked from the set. Kathleen Kennedy said the studio chose to reveal Palpatine's return early because the character would carry a bigger role in the story. She said it also distinguished him from Grogu, the new character introduced in The Mandalorian. Abrams had first considered bringing Palpatine back while developing The Force Awakens years earlier.

• 5. On Set and in Secret

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  Principal photography began on the 1st of August 2018, at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England. The crew also filmed at Wadi Rum in Jordan. Oscar Isaac said Abrams allowed more improvised acting on this film than on the previous two. A tight schedule meant some editing happened right on set.

  The production had three fewer months than The Force Awakens had been given. Editor Maryann Brandon was brought in to cut footage on set, about a third of the way through filming. Scenes covering Palpatine's return were reworked repeatedly during production because they were felt to 'go off topic.' The scene where Ben is dying and kisses Rey was shot both with and without the kiss. It was very nearly left out before Abrams chose to include it at the last minute.

  Filming wrapped on the 15th of February 2019. Footage from the production screened at Disney's annual shareholders meeting on the 7th of March 2019. Two more weeks of reshoots took place at Pinewood in July 2019, involving Hamill, Ridley, and Isaac. Another round followed at Bad Robot between late September and mid-October. Abrams said the film ultimately needed fewer reshoots and story changes than Episode VII had.

  Industrial Light & Magic created the visual effects under supervisor Roger Guyett. Adam Driver recorded last-minute ADR lines from inside a closet. Post-production finished on the 25th of November 2019. Afterward, John Boyega accidentally left a physical copy of the script in his hotel room, and it turned up listed on eBay for around £65. A Disney employee recognized it as authentic and bought it from the seller for an undisclosed sum.

• 6. Williams' Final Theme

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  John Williams was confirmed in January 2018 to return as composer and conductor. The following month, he announced it would be his last Star Wars score, though he later composed the theme for the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi. By August 2019, Williams had written about 35 minutes of an expected 135 minutes of music. His brother, Don, said the score would draw in every major theme from across the Skywalker saga.

  Scoring sessions began in July 2019, with Williams and William Ross conducting and orchestrating together over six months. Walt Disney Records released the official soundtrack album on the 20th of December 2019.

• 7. A Billion-Dollar Total

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  The Rise of Skywalker earned $515.2 million in the United States and Canada, plus $561.8 million elsewhere, for a worldwide total of $1.077 billion. That made it the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2019. Deadline Hollywood calculated its net profit at $300 million once all expenses and revenues were factored in.

  Presale tickets went on sale on the 21st of October 2019. Within their first hour on Atom Tickets, they outsold the previous record holder, Avengers: Endgame. The film became Atom Tickets' second-best first-day seller ever, behind only Endgame. It sold more than twice as many tickets as The Last Jedi had in the same window. Fandango reported that it outsold every previous Star Wars film.

  Analysts had projected an opening weekend around $205 million, though some firms guessed closer to $175 million. The film made $89.6 million on its first day, including $40 million from Thursday night previews, the sixth-highest opening day on record. It went on to debut at $177.4 million, the third-highest opening ever for a December release and the 12th-best of all time. Saturday's gross fell 47% from Friday's, likely because it was the year's busiest shopping day.

  Christmas Day brought in $32 million, the second-best total ever for that date, behind The Force Awakens' $49.3 million in 2015. The film's five-day total reached $138.8 million, including $76 million over the weekend. A third weekend gross of $34.5 million kept it in first place, before the newcomer 1917 dethroned it in week four. On the 14th of January 2020, the film crossed $1 billion, becoming Disney's seventh film of 2019 to reach that mark. For the year, only Avengers: Endgame and The Lion King grossed more in the region.

  Overseas, projections had put the opening weekend around $450 million, including $250 million from 52 international territories. The film earned $59.1 million on its first international day across 46 countries. The United Kingdom led at $8.3 million, followed by Germany at $7.2 million, France at $5.3 million, and Australia at $4.3 million. In China, it made $1.6 million on its opening day. The eventual international opening reached $198 million, for a worldwide debut of $373.5 million. That came in below projections and 47% behind The Last Jedi's opening. Its strongest markets by total gross were the UK at $26.8 million, Germany at $21.8 million, and France at $15.2 million. Japan followed at $14.6 million, then Australia at $12.6 million and China at $12.1 million.

• 8. The Backlash and the Meme

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  Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a mixed approval score. Metacritic scored it 53 out of 100 based on 61 critics, indicating 'mixed or average reviews.' Those marks left it with the lowest approval rating of all nine main Star Wars films, on both sites.

  Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it three stars out of four. He called it 'a solid, visually dazzling and warmhearted victory' for the craft of filmmaking. The A.V. Club's A. A. Dowd gave it a C+. He wrote that it 'flashes a weak smile as it vaguely approximates the appearance of a zippy good time.' Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle called it 'a disappointment.' Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times described it as 'an epic failure of nerve.' Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com scored it 2.5 out of 4, faulting its 'terrible dialogue' and 'phony CGI aesthetic.'

  Kelly Marie Tran, who had roughly ten minutes of screen time in The Last Jedi, appeared for about a minute in The Rise of Skywalker. Some critics read the reduced role as a concession to fans who had targeted her with racist, fatphobic, and misogynistic harassment after the previous film. Co-star John Boyega was among several cast members who publicly defended her. Screenwriter Chris Terrio said the shrunken role actually stemmed from the difficulty of working Carrie Fisher's archive footage into scenes meant to feature both characters.

  CinemaScore audiences graded the film a 'B+' on average, the lowest of any live-action film in the franchise. On PostTrak, it earned four out of five stars, with 70% of respondents calling it a 'definite recommend.' Months before any trailer arrived, the 'Want to See' score for the film was review-bombed on Rotten Tomatoes. It fell to as low as 5% in a single day. Screen Rant linked the campaign to lingering anger over The Last Jedi. A similar bombing campaign later hit Captain Marvel in 2019. Rotten Tomatoes then changed its 'Want to See' feature to a plain number, before eventually removing it.

  Some fans reacted badly to how Darth Sidious was written back into the story, largely because the film offered little explanation. The line 'Somehow, Palpatine returned' has since become an internet meme, one Screen Rant called 'the Star Wars meme to end all memes.' Screen Rant's Liz Declan wrote that the phrasing felt like 'a slap in the face.' She argued the film itself seemed unsure whether the plot made sense. Ian McDiarmid, asked about the reaction in 2025, said he avoids reading online commentary. He defended the character's logic anyway: 'I loved the whole idea that he should come back and be even more powerful than he was before.' He added a final verdict on Palpatine's fate: 'So I think he's dead.'

  Kathleen Kennedy said in a November 2021 interview that Lucasfilm had been discussing what might come next for the sequel trilogy's characters. In 2023, a new film directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy was announced, following Ridley as Rey attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order. Separately, Adam Driver pushed to keep playing Ben Solo in a spin-off called The Hunt for Ben Solo. It was developed with Steven Soderbergh and Jules Asner, and scripted by Scott Z. Burns. Lucasfilm greenlit that project, but Disney's Bob Iger and Alan Bergman stalled it by avoiding the script, before eventually rejecting it.