J.J. Abrams Explains Why Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Didn’t Provide All The Answers

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker answered a lot of burning questions we had after watching the previous two entries in the Sequel Trilogy, spilling the beans on the exact nature of Rey’s heritage, explaining who’s really been pulling the strings of the First Order all along and revealing Kylo Ren’s ultimate allegiance. However, it didn’t offer up everything that we want to know, with some mysteries left unanswered.

This was a deliberate choice by director J.J. Abrams. While speaking to Popcorn with Peter Travers, the filmmaker explained that he wanted to achieve a balance of making Episode IX feel “conclusive” but also allowing audiences to “do the math” on their own, something he felt that the Original Trilogy successfully managed.

“We knew going in that we had to make this feel conclusive. It had to come to an end. And yet, there are certain things that I feel… here’s the way I feel about Star Wars. It’s the reason that I loved the original trilogy so much — and the reason I loved the original trilogy more than the prequel trilogy, for me — which was that the original trilogy posed great questions, and allowed you to infer the answer. It allowed you to do the math on your own.”

The Prequel Trilogy, on the other hand, “which I love for a lot of reasons, but it’s not as much my favorite as the original,” Abrams added, answered “a lot of questions.” For him, though, less is sometimes more.

“Now, I’m not someone who needs to know about midi-chlorians. That doesn’t feel like it’s a thing for me. That’s not to say, however, in this movie we didn’t adhere to the eight films that preceded us and tell an ending that embraces all of it. I didn’t go against that stuff because I didn’t like it as much. But my point is that there’s something about answers, you need answers, but I don’t think demystifying everything is necessarily the key to a successful story.”

Of course, it’s up to fans whether Abrams pulled off the difficult balance he sought. Many will likely argue that there was too much left up to us to put together, thereby affecting the impact of the story. Maybe we should’ve found out how Emperor Palpatine was resurrected, for example, or whether Jannah is really Lando’s daughter – something that was only explained in a tie-in book.

Tell us, though, do you think Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker answered enough questions? Let us know in the comments section below.