Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker

"The saga will end. The story lives forever."

- Final trailer

Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker, marketed as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, is a 2019 film directed by J.J. Abrams from a script by Abrams and Chris Terrio. It is the third and final film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. The film, produced by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, is a continuation of 2015's The Force Awakens, which Abrams also directed and co-wrote, and 2017's The Last Jedi. Lucasfilm has referred to The Rise of Skywalker as the final installment of the Skywalker saga.

The film stars Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong'o, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran, with Ian McDiarmid and Billy Dee Williams. Fisher, who passed away in 2016 prior to the film's production, appeared via unused footage from The Force Awakens. The film was first announced after The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm in 2012. Colin Trevorrow was initially announced as the director and writer of the film, but he and Lucasfilm parted ways in September 2017, with Lucasfilm citing "creative differences" over the project. On September 12, 2017, Abrams and Terrio were announced as the new director and writers.

Principal photography began in 2018, and filming wrapped in 2019. Footage from The Rise of Skywalker was first made public on April 12, 2019 at Celebration Chicago. The film was released on December 20, 2019.

A search begins
"At last. Snoke trained you well."

- Palpatine to Kylo Ren

Some time after the Battle of Crait, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren and his stormtroopers find themselves on Mustafar fighting its natives for the wayfinder, belonging to the long-deceased Darth Vader. Ren is also here because he knows that a dark power was behind his master, the late former Supreme Leader&mdash;Snoke&mdash;and he is determined to find it. After slaughtering the natives, he finds the wayfinder device in a chest and allows it to lead the way to find the root of Snoke's strength, deep in Unknown Space.

He travels until he makes it to planet Exegol, where a gigantic cube is located. The dark warrior steps out, lightsaber ignited, and heads toward the cube.

Once inside, he finds what looks to be an elevator and he steps on it as it leads him deep down into the cube's depths. As he goes down, he hears Palpatine's voice speaking to him.

In the cube's depths, Ren cautiously searches for Palpatine while following the Sith Lord's voice. He tells Palpatine that he killed Snoke and will do the same to him. Palpatine reveals that he himself created Snoke, and that he has been every voice Ren has heard inside his head, including that of his grandfather, Darth Vader.

Ren silently inches his way through until he sees a cube-like life support system, where Palpatine is being attended to by various aides. The decrepit Sith Lord is sitting ominously as he stares at the son of Han Solo. Ren immediately points his lightsaber at Palpatine, who tells him that the First Order is just the beginning and that he will give Ren much more. Ren replies that he would kill him first, but Palpatine tells him that the dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some would consider to be unnatural. Ren asks what Palpatine would give him, to which he replies "everything," including the Final Order or the New Empire. As the dark lord says this, many Star Destroyers belonging to the Sith Fleet rise up from the frozen sea and take to the sky after a control tower beeps a signal.

Palpatine orders Ren to kill Rey and so end the Jedi Order to become what Darth Vader could not be. The Sith Lord further promises Ren that he will rule the galaxy as the new Emperor. Smiling ominously, Palpatine warns Ren that Rey is not who he thinks she is.

A vital mission
"He's definitely cheating."

- Finn on Chewbacca's playing of dejarik

Meanwhile, on the Millennium Falcon, ex-stormtrooper Finn and Resistance pilot Poe Dameron engage the Wookiee Chewbacca in an intense game of dejarik. The Wookiee takes quite a bit of time thinking and eventually, Poe and Finn playfully propose that he is cheating. This infuriates the Wookiee, but he calms down when Poe says he's joking. An alarm hits their ears; the trio exit and pass Klaud in the hallways. Poe tells him that he hopes Klaud can fix the issue.

The Falcon exits the dimension of hyperspace and the ship arrives at the Sinta Glacier Colony to meet a Resistance informant, the Ovissian Boolio.

Boolio tells them about a spy and gives them a message in the form of a data encoder, ordering them to give it to Leia. Finn proceeds to insert the message into R2-D2.

Just then a squadron of TIE fighters screech their way into battle, prepared to take down the Falcon.

As Finn prepares for the action and heads to the shooting cockpit, Boolio tells him to win the war before heading off.

The fight is short and quick, as Finn is able to destroy most of the TIEs before they can do any damage. Right away, Poe begins lightspace skipping where he is able to skip through hyperspace and realspace. Finn tells the pilot that he wants to learn that trick. Poe evades all the TIEs and makes it out alive, though his reckless trick-flying does damage the Falcon.

A Jedi rises
"Be with me. Be with me. You're not with me."

- Rey, as she meditates.

On Ajan Kloss, Rey meditates solemnly, floating in the air along with many rocks. She tries to maintain her composure and balance, but this does not work out and she falls back down to the ground. Rey stalks her way back to a watching Leia Organa who tells the discouraged Jedi that nothing is impossible. With that, Leia hands her Luke's/Anakin's lightsaber, which Rey grabs before she takes off running, readying for another piece of intense training with her training droid.

Rey excels in this and she is able to block every single bolt from the training droid with her lightsaber, showing her renewed strength and zeal, while Kylo Ren is meditating with his grandfather's helmet to see Rey.

Rey begins to struggle, trying fervently to destroy the training droid, and eventually, she is able to do so with a simple stick; when she does this she has a vision induced by Ren via Vader's helmet. The vision contains many characters and events: Palpatine's fleet, her mentor Han Solo, a dark version of herself, and more. This vision upsets her greatly.

Because of this, Rey does not initially notice that in her campaign to destroy the training droid, BB-8 is damaged. After she does, she returns to base where she tells Leia that she is not herself, and concedes that perhaps she is tired. She returns the lightsaber to Leia, saying that she would learn to wield Luke Skywalker's saber one day, to which BB-8 replies that he can. Rey is skeptical, but Leia tells her never to underestimate a droid.

Later, while Rey is studying holocrons and wayfinders in one of the ancient Jedi books she found at the First Jedi Temple, the Falcon returns, but it is on fire, thanks to Poe's lightspace skipping. Poe berates Rey, who is angry that her beloved ship is on fire, while Poe is aggravated because BB-8 is not in good shape either. Rey tells Poe he is difficult, then rushes over to give a shaken Finn a hug, while Poe tends to his droid. After Rey finds out Poe lightspeed skipped, she is even angrier as she knows the Falcon cannot support this.

At a Resistance briefing, Poe informs those assembled that Palpatine has returned; the news causes a ripple of shock. Rose Tico is dubious, while Beaumont Kin proposes that cloning has led to this. Poe reveals that Palpatine has been planning something sinister in the shadows: The Final Order. Poe says that in sixteen hours, attacks on all free worlds begin.

Palpatine, Poe reveals, is hiding on Exegol. C-3PO says that Exegol does not exist in star charts and is known as the Hidden Land of the Sith.

Rey, deep in thought, rushes over to grab her Jedi book, and shows Leia that she can get to Exegol, as Luke had searched for and nearly found the mysterious planet. Rey further informs Leia that a Sith Wayfinder is necessary to find Exegol. Leia refuses to allow it, claiming the mission is too dangerous, but Rey says that she will go because she knows Leia would do the same if she were in her place. Leia sends her to find a contact on the desert of Pasaana. Though Rey plans to go alone, Poe, Chewie, and Finn tell her that they will accompany her. 3PO tells R2-D2 that if anything were to happen, R2 is and has been his best friend. Rey tells Leia that there is so much she wants to tell her before Leia, giving Rey Luke's lightsaber, says to tell her when she gets back. With that, they depart.

Rise of a dark warrior
"We have a spy in our midst. Whoever that traitor is, it won't stop us."

- Ren to other First Order officials

A metalsmith, Symeong Sith alchemist Albrekh, stiches Ren's helmet back together as he looks on surrounded by his Knights of Ren. With that, they go back to his Star Destroyer to meet with the presiding members of the First Order, including General Armitage Hux and Allegiant General Enric Pryde. Ren, after throwing Boolio's head on the table, informs them that they have a spy in their midst. He tells them that the First Order is about to become a powerful Empire. He then asks Hux if he has a problem with his mask, to which the general says he does not, while the officer seated next to him agrees. Another official says that the Sith Fleet on Exegol sounds like a cult. Pryde disagrees and believes the Fleet will correct the error of Starkiller Base. The official then wonders aloud whether the Fleet is a gift and what Palpatine might ask in return, leading Ren to choke him and smash him up against the ceiling by means of the Force. Ren then orders his men to prepare to crush anyone who defies the First Order or the Sith Fleet. He then departs to hunt for Rey.

A mission is started
"What is this?"

- Poe on the Aki-Aki Festival of the Ancestors

The Falcon comes out of hyperspace over the desert planet of Pasaana. They land at Luke's coordinates and look around until they stumble upon the Aki-Aki Festival of the Ancestors which, according to Threepio, only happens once every 42 years. They walk around amongst the crowd for a while, trying to keep a low cover. As Rey gazes at some Aki Aki youngsters, a child known as Nambi Ghima comes up to welcome her and gives her a necklace. When asked her name, the Jedi she responds “Rey”; asked her family name, she replies that she does not have one. At that moment, Kylo Ren establishes a connection with Rey through their bond. He tells her that Palpatine wants her dead, to which Rey replies that he is serving another master, which Ren denies, claiming he has other plans. After insisting that he will turn her to the dark side, Ren reaches out and grabs her necklace, pulling it through the Force into his own locale. Rey realizes the First Order is coming and runs off to warn her friends. As they prepare to escape, a stormtrooper finds them, but is quickly shot by a mysterious hero. This masked savior asks Rey and her team to follow him. Once they enter a transport, he reveals himself to be Lando Calrissian, the man who destroyed the second Death Star at the Battle of Endor many years ago. He shows them a hologram of a Sith Wayfinder and explains that only two remain. He further reveals that he once accompanied Luke on a mission to track a man named Ochi, whom they believed held one of the Wayfinders, but when they arrived, they found his ship abandoned. At that moment, he First Order arrives, and Lando sends them all off with directions.

The heroes and droids sink into sinking fields—similar to quicksand, but rocky—after being chased by First Order Jet troopers. Soon they find themselves in massive underground tunnels, where they locate Ochi's remains; it seems he fell through the sinking fields and was never able to escape. They soon recover Ochi's Dagger, which is inscribed with a Sith text Threepio can't translate due to restrictions in his programming. As they are about to turn away, the team runs into a giant, aggressive Vexis snake. Our heroes prepare to fight their way to freedom, resigned to meet their fate, when Rey notices that the snake is injured. Using Force healing, Rey appeases the vexis snake before the group finds a way out.

Rey senses Kylo Ren is near, and goes out to confront him. Ren rushes toward her in his TIE whisper, but Rey leaps over the oncoming ship and severs a wing with her lightsaber, causing the TIE to crash. Meanwhile, the Knights of Ren capture the Falcon, Chewbacca, and the Dagger. Rey, attempting to save Chewbacca, struggles against Ren for control of a First Order transport, which she accidentally destroys by releasing an unintentional blast of Force lightning. The group escapes on Ochi's ship, believing Chewbacca was killed in the explosion and the Dagger destroyed; in reality, Chewie is being held by Hux and Pryde. Crushed, the group fly away from the planet. Yet all is not lost. Threepio has the Dagger's message stored in his memory. A plan to hack the protocol droid’s programming restrictions is formed and the heroes set course for Kijimi. BB-8 also finds and reboots the droid D-O on Ochi’s ship.

A new mission
"Spice runner?!"

- Finn after finding out Poe's former occupation.

The heroes of the Resistance make their way to the snow-dusted planet of Kijimi to execute their plan to discover what secrets the Dagger held. The Resistance team arrives on the planet and bump into Zorii Bliss and her crew. She reveals that Poe has a colorful past, once worked as a spice runner and still owes her money. A skirmish occurs before Rey gets the upper hand and Zorii agrees to bring them to Babu Frik to hack C-3PO’s programming to read the Sith language on the Dagger. Unknown to them, the Knights of Ren have tracked them there. Babu Frik brings them through a back alley and into a little bar in order to get to the droid ship. Frik tells everyone that he can unlock the message to be read, but in doing so C-3PO’s memory will be wiped. Still reeling from the loss of Chewbacca, the heroes argue about finding another way to get the job done, but in an act of self sacrifice C-3PO voluntarily consent to the modifications, knowing that he will be lost in the act.

Frik completes the hack and Threepio is now able to read the message inscribed on the Dagger.

The translated text points them to the location of Palpatine's own wayfinder. Having served his purpose, 3PO's memory wipe begins and he shuts down. Once the memory wipe is complete, Threepio reboots with a completely empty memory.

Zorii and Poe reminisce about old times. There is some lingering connection there even though they had some sort of falling out in the past. Poe tries to convince Zorii to join them. She turns him down, but she understands the good in what Poe is trying to do and gives him a First Order Captain's Medallion as a gesture of good will to help them get through First Order security. She had been saving to buy this medallion on the black market as her ticket off Kijimi and away from her spice running days, but she gives it to Poe.

As the First Order arrives, Rey senses that Chewie is alive.

As the heroes escape on Ochi’s ship, the group makes the decision to use the passage device to board the Star Destroyer and recapture the Falcon and save Chewie. The device works as advertised and their ship lands without question. Rey uses a mind trick to find Chewie. Rey splits off, feeling as if something is calling to her. Meanwhile, the others find Chewie, but their rescue attempt fails and they are all taken captive.

The calling Rey feels is caused by the dagger which draws her to it in Kylo’s living quarters. Rey finds and grabs Ochi’s Dagger, but when she does, it gives her visions of what happened to her parents. Ochi found and killed them with that dagger and that her parents were trying to hide her from Ochi. When she breaks free of the vision a bond with Kylo begins. He discovers that she is on his Star Destroyer and a lightsaber duel breaks out between the two of them across two different locations. Kylo on the surface of Kijimi and Rey aboard the Star Destroyer. During this encounter, Kylo reveals that there is more to the story behind Rey and her parents. Ochi was sent to find and recover Rey, not kill her. Her parents just got in the way, so he killed them. She is still wanted for the darkness that resides within her. It’s clear that by this point, Kylo is fully committed to what the Sith Lord's mission for him.

A new revelation
"You're a Palpatine."

- Kylo Ren to Rey

When it appears that all is lost for our heroes that have been captured by the First Order, General Hux arrives and surprisingly not only allows them to escape, but points them in the direction of the Falcon. Hux was the mole within the First Order that Finn and Poe had received information from. When asked, he tells them that he wasn't doing it to help the Resistance, but rather because he didn't want Kylo Ren to win.

Ren arrives and faces off Rey, in which he reveals that she is Palpatine's granddaughter. Her father was the son of the Emperor. Kylo once agin offers for Rey to join him, but she refuses, escaping in the Falcon.

After they leave, Pryde kills Hux for treason against the First Order. From this point forward, General Pryde is the sole commander of the First Order military. Palpatine contacts Pryde and demands that he use one of the specially equipped Star Destroyers to destroy Kijimi as an act of loyalty and Pryde complies. Pryde tells Kylo that even though the don’t have the dagger, they know where the Resistance is going because they scanned it while it was still in their possession.

To Endor
"He said you'd come. He said you were the last hope."

- Jannah of Rey's team

The information gleaned from C-3PO’s translation of the dagger’s writing leads to the location of a second wayfinder device which turns out to be aboard the wreckage of the second Death Star on the ocean moon of Kef Bir.

The team eventually meets a woman named Jannah. She heard about them from Babu Frik and at their urging, offers to take them to the location of the Wayfinder the next day.

While fixing the Falcon with Finn, Jannah reveals she was once a stormtrooper known as TZ-1719 and that her whole tribe were former troopers. They mutinied at a battle in which they were told to fire on civilians.

But soon, the group realizes they had not seen Rey. She had, in fact, taken a skimmer and was headed to get the wayfinder.

Rey uses the dagger to locate the Wayfinder and envisions herself as a Sith upon contacting it. Kylo, having tracked the group to Kef Bir, destroys the Wayfinder and duels Rey. A dying Leia calls to Kylo through the Force, but Rey impales him. Sensing Leia's death, Rey heals Kylo and takes his ship to exile herself to Ahch-To, shaken by her Sith lineage. Luke's Force spirit appears and encourages Rey to face Palpatine as he faced Darth Vader, giving her Leia's lightsaber and his old X-wing. Rey leaves for Exegol, using the wayfinder on Kylo's ship. On Kef Bir, Kylo converses with a vision of Han Solo, his father, and throws his lightsaber into the water near the wreckage of the Death Star, reclaiming his identity as Ben Solo.

Confrontation on Exegol
Rey arrives on Exegol and transmits her location to the Resistance. She confronts Palpatine, who demands that she kill him to transfer his spirit into Rey. The Resistance engages in battle with the Sith Lord's fleet. Ben overpowers the Knights of Ren and arrives to help Rey. Palpatine rejuvenates himself by absorbing the life essences of Rey and Ben and then attacks the Resistance fleet above with Force lightning. Palpatine tells Ben that he will be the last Skywalker and uses the Force to throw him into a nearby chasm, seemingly killing him.

A weakened Rey hears the voices of past Jedi (Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Master Qui-Gon Jinn, former Padawan Ahsoka Tano, Master Yoda, Master Mace Windu, Knight Kanan Jarrus, Knight Aayla Secura, Master Luminara Unduli, Master Adi Gallia, Master Luke Skywalker, and Knight Anakin Skywalker) who lend their strength and encourage her to continue on. Palpatine furiously attempts to destroy his granddaughter with lightning, but Rey deflects it back towards him using the two lightsabers, disintegrating his body and killing him Once and for all. After Rey dies from the effort of the powerful attack, a hand appears at the edge of the chasm and an injured Ben pulls himself up, falling to his knees besides Rey and pulling her dead body into his lap.

He cries over her and embraces Rey's body, looking somewhat determined. Pulling away Ben puts his hand on her stomach, using the Force to resurrect her and sacrificing himself, seemingly exchanging his life for hers. Rey awakens, smiling at Ben and touching his cheek gently. The two embrace before kissing passionately. Moments after Ben falls backward, succumbing to his injuries and dying, his body fading away as he becomes one with the Force, with Leia's body doing the same as it happens.

After returning for Finn and Jannah, Lando leads the Resistance, which is now backed by reinforcements, including Zorii Bliss. They are then able to destroy the remainder of the Sith Lord's armada.

Return to Tatooine
The Resistance and the Galaxy at large celebrate their victory. Maz Kanata bestows Chewbacca with a Medal of Bravery, saying that he deserves it. Poe and Zorii exchange a look and it seems like Poe is trying to ask Zorii if she would like to celebrate with him privately, to which she shakes her head. Rey then returns, and shares a hug with Finn and Poe.

Rey visits the Lars homestead on Tatooine, where she buries the Skywalker lightsabers in the sand, having now built her own&mdash;a black-handled lightsaber with a yellow blade. A local asks her name and, seeing spirits of Luke and Leia look on, Rey gives her name as "Rey Skywalker". Rey and BB-8 then head off into the distance as the twin suns of Tatooine set.

Development
"To have no script and to have a release date and have it be essentially a two-year window when you're saying (to yourself), you've got two years from the decision to do it to release, and you have literally nothing.... You don't have the story, you don't have the cast, you don't have the designers, the sets. There was a crew, and there were things that will be worked on for the version that preceded ours, but this was starting over."

- J.J. Abrams, on taking over from Colin Trevorrow

Long before Lucasfilm's acquisition by Disney in 2012, Star Wars creator George Lucas mentioned that he had plans to make nine films. Producer Gary Kurtz mentioned in a 1999 interview that Lucas' plans for Episode IX included the first appearance of the Emperor, a plot point ultimately used in the original trilogy's conclusion. Lucas once estimated to film Episode IX in 2011 back in 1976 and wanted Mark Hamill to make a cameo in the film "like Obi-Wan handing the lightsaber down to the next new hope". According to Hamill, Lucas's outline for the sequel trilogy had Luke Skywalker surviving until Episode IX and training Leia Organa in the Force. Hamill was an advocate for this version of the story.

In August 2015, Colin Trevorrow was announced as director for Episode IX. As J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson had to ensure a smooth transition between Episodes VII and VIII, Johnson and Trevorrow worked closely to ensure continuity between their respective films. With cinematographer John Schwartzman, Trevorrow planned to shoot on 65 mm film, and wanted to capture some footage in actual outer space. By 2016, Lucasfilm had developed a full outline, which Trevorrow then turned into a screenplay. He presented the completed script to Lucasfilm (as well as Lucas and Hamill) in early December of that year.

Various reports claimed that both Abrams and Johnson were involved with the story for The Rise of Skywalker, though they each denied this,  with Abrams saying on his part "We don't write a treatment but there are countless times we came up with something and said 'oh, this would be so great for Episode VIII!' or 'Thats what we could get to in IX!' According to The Force Awakens co-writer Lawrence Kasdan, the Lucasfilm creative team developed a general idea early on as to how they wanted the film to end. This was echoed by Kylo Ren actor Adam Driver: "With Star Wars, I had one piece of information of where it was all going, and that's where it has been in my head for a long time, and things were building towards that." Carrie Fisher's brother, Todd Fisher, told yahoo.com that initial plans for the film had Leia playing a key role, reportedly becoming the "last Jedi" referenced in the title of its predecessor.

Death of Carrie Fisher
"The minute she finished, she grabbed me and said, 'I'd better be at the forefront of IX!' Because Harrison was front and center on VII, and Mark is front and center on VIII. She thought IX would be her movie. And it would have been."

- Kathleen Kennedy, on Carrie Fisher's death

Carrie Fisher died on December 27, 2016. In light of this, Trevorrow met with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy in January 2017 to discuss possible story solutions. Kennedy said that the team had "pretty much started over" and it was reported that Jack Thorne was hired to rewrite the initial script. However, in September 2017, it was announced that Trevorrow had left the project due to creative differences, and that he would be replaced by Abrams. According to Kennedy, it was during the initial scripting phase that she realized Trevorrow wasn't the right person for the job; She attributed this to Trevorrow having not been present at the story conferences for The Force Awakens, during which a basic plan for the trilogy had been laid out. Disney reportedly agreed to pay a fee to Paramount Pictures so that Abrams could make the film, as he had been in breach of contract with the latter by his involvement in The Force Awakens.) Abrams pitched his story to Disney head Bob Iger in December 2017 and had a script ready by February 2018. As he told Rolling Stone, "I had no intention to return. But when the opportunity presented itself to finish a story that we had begun with these new characters, to tell the last chapter of their story, it felt like there was a chance to do it in a way where we could go beyond, and do better than we did in Seven."

Due to the time constraints and pressure of returning to the series, Abrams asked Chris Terrio to co-write the film. Abrams later described the writing process as “this crazy challenge that could have been a wildly uncomfortable contortion of ideas and shoving in of answers and Band-Aids and bridges ... I feel like we've gotten to a place–without jinxing anything–where we might have something incredibly special.” In May 2018, he told The Wall Street Journal: "I had a bunch of ideas from the beginning, back on VII, of where the story would go. I just never in my wildest dreams thought I would have a chance to execute them". The creative team met with Lucas, Johnson and Kasdan before writing the script; According to Abrams, Lucas explained many of his own ideas about the Force and the midi-chlorians. Abrams and Terrio began the writing process by writing ideas on a series of dry erase boards at Bad Robot, and then transferring them to a Microsoft Word document. During the process, they collaborated on ideas with Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Rick Carter, Roger Guyett, Kevin Jenkins, Michael Kaplan and Neal Scanlan. Kennedy described the process to Gizmodo: "Nobody was being overly polite. If you didn't think something made sense. If you couldn't follow it, if you thought, from a fan's point of view, that you're stepping outside the lines and it was a bogus kind of thinking, no one was afraid to say that because we knew how important this was to get right. And we didn't let things go." Terrio was well-versed in the Expanded Universe and recent Star Wars animation, and was influenced by many of those stories in writing the film. He compared the process to writing non-fiction: "When we would make a story decision, we were fully aware that this now will become canon, and so are we sure that this is the right story decision? Are we sure about it character-wise? Are we sure about it thematically? Does it seem like it gels with George's original intentions from Episode IV? Does it gel with what we learned in the prequels and what we learned in the sequel trilogy?" He thought of the core characters as analogous to children of revolutionaries who fought in the War of 1812.

They were determined to make a film that would conclude the Skywalker saga and tie together the previous eight chapters. Terrio and Abrams revisited some of the ideas Abrams and Kasdan had had for The Force Awakens, and also used some ideas that were present in Trevorrow's script. Certain aspects of the story changed significantly during pre-production, and the film had frequent dialogue changes from day to day. Producer Kathleen Kennedy claimed that Palpatine's return was planned from the beginning, although Trevorrow believed it was a new idea by Abrams. Regardless, Trevorrow and his frequent writing partner Derek Connolly received story credits in the final film. In regards to The Last Jedi's influence on the film, Abrams told Esquire: "As a filmmaker, working on episode IX, amazingly, nothing that he [Rian Johnson] did in Last Jedi got in the way of things that we had talked about wanting to do down the line, ideas that I had about where things might go, so... it wasn't like his story somehow derailed the things I wanted to pursue. In fact, strangely, they might have even helped strengthen them because we got to make some choices that sort of take advantage of the fact that Rian hadn't done the things that we were thinking about doing."

Lucasfilm dispelled rumors that it would digitally recreate Fisher in future films. Fisher's brother Todd said that he and Billie Lourd had granted Lucasfilm rights to use footage of her. Kennedy initially claimed that Ms. Fisher would not appear in the film, though Abrams later confirmed that Ms. Fisher will appear in the film via unused footage from The Force Awakens. Mr. Fisher credited this decision to Abrams, who said "It was like finding this impossible answer to this impossible question". According to Mr. Fisher: "There's a lot of minutes of footage. I don't mean just outtakes. This is unused, new content that could be woven into the storyline. That's what's going to give everybody such a great kick. It's going to look like it was meant to be. Like it was shot yesterday.” (He also claimed that unused footage from The Last Jedi would also be used; Abrams later clarified that no footage from that film was used due to nothing substantial being available. )

Production
"We went into this movie very much in the mindset that this has to be conclusive. It has to. You have to get some answers. You have to learn some things."

- J.J. Abrams

Principal photography began at Pinewood Studios on August 1, 2018, under the working title of "trlXie" (originally "Black Diamond"). Production also took place in Wadi Rum, Jordan (the same filming location for Jedha in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) for three weeks. Some sequences were filmed with 65mm film and IMAX cameras. Because the film was under a shortened production timeline, the crew had to shoot everything they needed during principal photography, and Maryann Brandon began editing on set.

Abrams felt less creatively constrained in making The Rise of Skywalker than he did with The Force Awakens, citing Rian Johnson's work on The Last Jedi as the inspiration: "Rian helped remind me that that's why we're on these movies–not to just do something that you've seen before." According to Poe Dameron actor Oscar Isaac, the shooting of The Rise of Skywalker allowed for more improvisation than The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi; "It's a testament to J.J. coming back and feeling confident. There's less pressure for it to be right. We just want to make a good movie and have a really good time while doing it." Abrams shot many of the character interactions in long takes, with actors sometimes coming up with their own lines. Daisy Ridley also commented: "There was this thing: JJ would ask us to do the scene without speaking, just to feel the emotional... whatever. He was like, 'You never know what could come up.' We did that a couple of times. Then it became a joke, because we would just wet ourselves laughing."

Prior to shooting, members of the cast were trained in various specialties to prepare for the shoot, such as kickboxing, horseback riding, using a bow-and-arrow and holding a gun. Ridley performed the majority of her character's stunts herself. Filmmaker Kevin Smith visited the set (just as he did for The Force Awakens) and described what he saw: "Biggest set I've ever seen in my life. The dude's not directing a movie, it's like he's directing a small country." The script was under even greater security than those of previous films, with actors not allowed to take copies home; Despite this, a copy was put up for sale on eBay, after Finn actor John Boyega accidentally left it under his bed and it was found by a cleaning person. However, Lucasfilm was warned about it and recovered the script before someone could buy it. By December 11, 2018, Hamill had worked for "about a week" on the film, but had yet to shoot most of his scenes, which he expected to do alongside his work on the TV series Knightfall.

Filming wrapped on February 15, 2019. Reshoots reportedly took place between late September and mid-October at Bad Robot Productions.

Post-production
John Williams had begun work on the musical score as of May 2019, and was scheduled to begin recording in June. Recording reportedly finished sometime that November. He has said that it will most likely be his final Star Wars project.

The film was the first project for a new ILM division in Sydney, Australia. Abrams told Entertainment Weekly that the film had significantly less post-production time than normal, and that it was "literally a practical race to get it finished.” However, he felt more confident about The Rise of Skywalker than he had The Force Awakens. The editing of The Rise of Skywalker was finished on November 24, 2019. Taken as a whole, Abrams described the film as "the most challenging" project he'd ever been involved with.

Release
"The beauty of working with Chris Terrio and producing with Kathleen Kennedy is that I think we have found a way — I hope, it's up for you to decide — to bring this story to a conclusion in a way that feels satisfying, surprising, amusing, shocking, all the ways that a story should make you feel."

- J.J. Abrams

The film was originally scheduled for release on May 24, 2019, but was later pushed back to December 20, giving the May 24 date to the live-action remake of Aladdin. Footage was first publicly screened at Disney's March 8 investor's conference, and briefly at CinemaCon 2019 as part of a montage of upcoming Disney films. The film was featured in a panel at Celebration Chicago, featuring director/co-writer J.J. Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy. The teaser trailer debuted at this event, which also revealed the film's title and teaser poster. During the convention, Abrams, Kennedy, and members of the cast were interviewed for Good Morning America. The film was featured in the May issue of Vanity Fair, the November issues of Empire, Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone, the December issue of People, and the January 2020 issue of Empire. A panel was held at the 2019 D23 Expo, featuring cast and crew, with the reveal of a new teaser poster and two show casings of footage; The latter of the two was later released online and aired on television.

The cast and crew made a number of television appearances to promote the film, including Good Morning America,   The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,  Live with Kelly and Ryan,  Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The cast and crew participated in a livestream Q&A on December 2, a press conference on December 4. Brazil's Comic Con Experience on December 7, and the film's Japan premiere on December 11. On December 12, Amazon.com released an exclusive behind-the-scenes video. Tickets went on sale October 21, followed by the release of the final trailer on Monday Night Football and the theatrical poster. Lucasfilm collaborated with Porsche on a new Star Wars spaceship design that was built for the film's premiere, named the Tri-Wing S-91x Pegasus Starfighter. Beginning on December 18, AMC Theaters held a 27+ hour marathon of Episodes I through VIII, leading up to Episode IX. Adam Driver, Greg Grunberg and Mark Hamill each held Omaze fundraisers for which winners could attend the film's U.S. premier,  which was held on December 16. As happened with The Force Awakens, a dying fan was given a screening of the film, with Bob Iger himself confirming it on Twitter.

Merchandising
In November 2018, Lucasfilm debuted the animated shorts Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures as an introduction to the saga for children, beginning a year-long lead-up to the film. In December 2018, Topps began a year-long campaign, dubbed "Star Wars Galactic Moments: Countdown to Episode IX," in which three cards are released each week leading up to the release of the film. Sith trooper merchandise debuted in stores on September 1, 2019, while the film's main merchandise push began on October 4, 2019, known as Triple Force Friday. Aside from The Rise of Skywalker, the event debuted merchandise for the TV series The Mandalorian and the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Lucasfilm partnered with eight product brands to promote the film: Bose, Dannon, General Electric, General Mills, Porsche, Samsung, McDonald's and United Airlines &mdash;with each ad campaign beginning on November 1. Like with The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, the months leading up to the debut of The Rise of Skywalker saw the release of tie-in novels, short stories, comics, reference books, and activity books known collectively as Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Star Wars Battlefront II and Star Tours: The Adventures Continue introduced The Rise of Skywalker-themed content. Roblox also featured tie-in elements with the film. Funko released an animated short inspired by the film. On December 12, Fortnite released The Rise of Skywalker skins and emotes, and on December 14 previewed a scene from the film in an in-game event. Lucasfilm hosted Star Wars Nights at NBA games in December 2019 and January 2020. The 2020 video game LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will include levels from the film.

Home video
As with the whole Star Wars saga, The Rise of Skywalker will be released on Disney+ in 2020 to follow up the late 2019 release of The Mandalorian.

Reception
According to Forbes writer Scott Mendelson, the film is projected to open to higher box office records given that films like Wonder Woman 1984, No Time to Die, and Death on the Nile have been all pushed back to 2020. As of the current moment, The Rise of Skywalker competes at box office with Jumanji: The Next Level and Cats. A Fandango poll ranked the film as the third most anticipated movie of 2019, behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel. In November 2019, the film was tracking for an opening box office of between $175 and $205 million.

Continuity
While playing Dejarik with Chewbacca, Finn and Poe Dameron complain on Chewie's cheating, adding that the Wookiee is 250 years old. However, according to the information given by Star Wars: Card Trader, Chewie would be canonically 237 years old by 35 ABY.

Upon being informed that Kef Bir is located on the Endor system, Finn asks if it wasn't on Endor where the Galactic Empire had its last battle. While many audiences would think this by just seeing the movies, this isn't correct. The Battle of Endor was a heavy blow to the Empire, but the Empire was definitely defeated in the Battle of Jakku, as noted in the 2015 reference book Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary.

The movie seems to imply several retcons to the Snoke character. Previous works of the Journey to the Star Wars: The Last Jedi initiative had implied that Snoke and Darth Sidious were unrelated and that Snoke was a completely different character. The 2017 reference book Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary stated Snoke to be a dark side user albeit not affiliated to the Sith while the 2018 novelization of Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi stated that Sidious had sensed Snoke before his death, feeling that whoever Snoke was, he was going to succeed him.