JJ Abrams admits the latest Star Wars trilogy lacked a plan

“I believe that there is nothing more important than knowing from the start where you want to go…”

Updated March 7, 2024: TMC completes the rebroadcast of the saga Star Warsthis evening, with the 9th opus directed by JJ Abrams and released in cinemas in December 2019. The Rise of Skywalker received a mixed reception upon its release, both from fans and critics – our spoiler-free review is worth reading here.

In May 2021, its director returned to this reception, explaining that he had learned his lesson. According to him, the last trilogy lacked“a map”, and this notably impacted its final episode. Indeed, after realizing The force awakensin 2015 he left the place of director to Rian Johnson, who changed many elements of the plot to surprise fans of Star Wars with The Last Jedi (2017). Ambitious choices which weighed on the smooth progress of the plot, when Abrams took over the controls for Star Wars 9. Here is what the latter explained at the time.

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Interview from May 27, 2021: Even if the third trilogy Star Wars was a huge success at the worldwide box office, with 4.4 billion dollars in revenue, it left a strange feeling among fans. The least we can say is that The force awakens, The Last Jedi And The Rise of Skywalker were three disjointed stories. Leaving the feeling that there wasn't really a wide shot at first. The filmmaker and producer, Abramsassumes and in a recent interview with Colliderhe admits:

“This is a lesson that I have learned many times in my career, even more so in this year of pandemic: it is important to have a plan, to plan things as best as possible, and to always be able to respond to the unexpected. And the unexpected can take all kinds of forms. In the end, I believe that there is nothing more important than knowing from the start where you want to go (with a movie).”

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Furthermore, Abrams also explains that sometimes you have to accept that the planned plan is not what the fans expected:

“You never really know how it's going to turn out… But I learned – and sometimes the hard way – that having a plan is the most essential thing. Because otherwise, you don't know what you're putting into action. place. You don't know what to emphasize. But if you don't know the essential story (of the film), you are only as good as your last action sequence, your last special effect or joke or whatever. But what we really want (with a film) is to take the story towards something inevitable…”

Indeed, we say to ourselves that, perhaps, the last trilogy Star Wars would have gained in coherence if a clear plan had been established from the start.

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