Kevin Smith Says Star Wars: Episode IX Is Fantastic And Made Him Cry

Despite previous reports saying that the first trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: Episode IX wouldn’t be arriving until April, a new rumor has been getting a lot of traction lately which alleges that we’ll be seeing some footage before the year is out. Time will tell whether this claim has any truth to it, but at the very least, filmmaker and podcaster Kevin Smith has teased the movie enough already with his spoiler-free recollection of his trip to the set.

Smith appeared on Good Morning America earlier today, where he revealed that he recently had a chance to soak in the atmosphere for Lucasfilm’s next cinematic production.

“I’m a small-time director, but I was just on a big-time movie set,” Smith said. “I was just over in England and I visited J.J. Abrams on Star Wars, the new Star Wars movie.”

WATCH:
— "I wept on set…"
— "Biggest set I've ever seen in my life."
— "@jjabrams is doing the Lord's work"@ThatKevinSmith joined us on #GMADay with @sarahaines & @michaelstrahan and dished on being on the set of @starwars: #EpisodeIX! https://t.co/pIZkAkwId3 pic.twitter.com/T4VPa4mH2u

— Good Morning America (@GMA) December 5, 2018

Of course, there are some heavy restrictions on what Smith can share from his experience, but in the vaguest of terms, the Clerks director painted a picture of an emotional tour de force.

“They make you sign so many nondisclosure agreements that if I said anything, somebody with a lightsaber would pop out and cut my hand off,” Smith added. “But I do want to say this… number one, J.J. is doing the lord’s work. This movie looks fantastic. It’s a year away, but man it looks fantastic. I wept on set because I saw somebody give a career best performance, somebody I’ve seen in these movies before. I rolled a tear, it was so darn powerful.”

It was reported earlier this year that actress Daisy Ridley was also reduced to tears upon hearing Colin Trevorrow’s original pitch for next year’s trilogy-closer, and while a lot has changed since those days, it seems inevitable that Abrams will have a weepy finale of his own in mind, especially when charged with the task of giving General Leia an appropriate send-off.

Anyway, while the scenes that Smith saw apparently went big with the emotions, it sounds like the set had the scale to match:

“Biggest set I’ve ever seen in my life. The dude’s not directing a movie, it’s like he’s directing a small country. The thing is so massive. I sat there for a week and watched two scenes get filmed. One of them was absolutely amazing. I heard plot details and stuff, movie is going to be fantastic.”

We’ve yet to hear Smith make a claim about this film as bold as his assertion that he’d rather watch Avengers 4 than ever make another movie, but it’s still safe to say that he’s pumped for what’s to come. And we’ll find out for ourselves if Star Wars: Episode IX can live up to the hype when it hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.