We are now in October, and while many folks will see this as the official kickoff to Halloween, for “Star Wars” fans, it’s the signal that the promotion for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” is imminently approaching. And as is fairly customary before a new Star War, interviews with cast and crew are beginning to pop up, with the vaguest answers humanly possible.
But in the case of ‘Skywalker’ writer Chris Terrio and his recent interview with Empire, he does drop a couple of nuggets that are obviously vague but do give a couple of major clues about what fans can expect in the upcoming conclusion to the Skywalker Saga.
The writer was asked about the two questions that fueled his story for the upcoming “Star Wars” sequel. His responses seem obvious but also point to the direction ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ could be headed in.
“One of them is a simple one: ‘Who is Rey?’” he revealed. “Which is a question that people not only wonder about quite literally, but wonder about in the spiritual sense. How can Rey become the spiritual heir to the Jedi?”
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He continued, “We kept coming back to ‘Who is Rey?’ and how can we give the most satisfying answer to that not only factually – because obviously people are interested in whether there’s more to be learned of Rey’s story – but more importantly who is she as a character? How will she find the courage and will and inner strength and power to carry on what she’s inherited?”
This first question is likely going to be one that divides “Star Wars” fans. And it’s not as simple as those who want to know the answer or not. If there is one character that has been the most controversial since Disney relaunched the “Star Wars” franchise, it’s Rey. Is she a Mary Sue? Is she the best character to be introduced since Luke? Those are things that still get brought up, regardless of her origins. And obviously, there are those that accept the Rian Johnson answer to the Rey parentage question and cringe at the idea that JJ Abrams and Terrio are going to retcon it so soon.
But as mentioned, there were two questions, not just the big ol’ Rey question. The writer explains that the second question is also just as ambiguous and massive.
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“The second one is, ‘How strong is the Force?’” he added. “It sounds a little simple, but actually when you get down to it, that is a sort of Zen Koan that we would really meditate on – not literally in yoga poses or anything, but like we would discuss, ‘What is the Force and how strong is the Force?’ Those two things were really important.”
This idea that the Force is way more expansive and powerful than we first realized in the early films was recently showcased in ‘The Last Jedi,’ where Luke used the Force in ways that have previously never been seen, hinting that there’s a lot more to the fairly simple concept that George Lucas introduced in 1977 than meets the eye.
Of course, we won’t get answers to these questions until “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” arrives in theaters on December 20, 2019.