Lucasfilm(NEW YORK) — The ninth and final installment in the Skywalker Saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker officially opens today.
The movie, starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Kelly Marie Tran, was directed by J.J. Abrams.
The plot has Ridley’s Rey continuing her Jedi training while searching for her true parentage. Meanwhile, Driver’s Kylo Ren is trying to find the source of messages he’s been receiving…from long-thought-dead Emperor Palpatine.
In Skywalker, Abrams counters the divisive comic tone taken by director Rian Johnson in previous episode, Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
“The tone definitely feels different,” Tran tells ABC Audio. “J.J….and [co-writer] Chris Terrio…[have] done a really great job of sort of tying all these stories together, because it is the end of nine films, not the end of three.”
Boyega tells ABC Audio he was eager to leave the goofiness behind.
“Last Jedi was a bit of a downer in terms of the way Finn was was portrayed for me, to be honest,” he admits. “In [Episode] 7, Force Awakens, the fear, all of that was great, but it would have made more sense if that led to a self-found strength.”
He explains fans were disappointed to Johnson’s treatment of Finn, too. “The fans made me realize it,” Boyega says. “And I appreciate them for that.”
Things were different this time around, he tells us.
“Any moment I was told to, y’know, ‘Show a bit more fear,’ I just wouldn’t do it. Because it’s like: ‘This guy escaped from the First Order…shot all of his mates…and he’s gonna be still scared of a laser fire?"”
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