Star Wars: Episode IX is set to blast into this galaxy in December and J.J. Abrams’ movie has a lot riding on it. For starters, it’s got to wrap up the trilogy he began back in 2015 with a bang. Secondly, it also has to win back those fans that didn’t get on with The Last Jedi. Given how fierce the backlash was against Rian Johnson’s eighth episode in the saga, you’d imagine that Abrams’ film was impacted in some way by that reaction.
While speaking to Entertainment Weekly, however, the director echoed statements he’s made in the past and maintained that Episode IX is its “own movie” and that when people see it they’ll understand that “the story speaks for itself.”
“No, I think that every movie is its own movie and, obviously, this is a trilogy. We brought to that movie all the passion and hard work that we would have no matter what. I think the story speaks for itself.”
The ironic thing about the criticism of The Last Jedi is that Abrams himself was once vilified by another subset of fans for playing things too safe, with some arguing that The Force Awakens coasted by on nostalgia for A New Hope. Then Johnson came along and delivered a genuinely bold and fresh take on the franchise and was met with an even bigger backlash.
Clearly, the best thing Abrams and his team can do is simply make a movie that they believe in and, going by his comments to ET, he’s done exactly that. I suppose what we have to hope for, in terms of appeasing the cross-section of Star Wars fandom, is for Episode IX to hark back to our childhood experiences with Star Wars but also offer up some concepts and twists that are innovative and very different.
Certainly, what we’ve heard so far is more than encouraging, with a terrific cast lined-up and some exciting cameos rumored. You never can tell how things are going to go down in the SW fan community, though, so we’ll just have to wait and see when Star Wars: Episode IX – title impending – arrives on December 20th.
