J.J. Abrams Says Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Trailers Have Only Scratched The Surface

We’ve had three separate trailers come our way in the run-up to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, so fans think they’ve managed to map out a solid working theory of how the movie goes based on the footage we’ve seen so far. But we may be way off, as these trailers apparently only give us a flavor of what Episode IX has to offer. At least, that’s according to director J.J. Abrams.

In EW’s extensive cover story on TROS, Abrams touched on how much more there is in the film than we might be expecting. “The trailers that have come out are scratching the surface of what the movie is,” the director promised. When pressed for info on whether there are any major set pieces that have been completely absent from the marketing, Abrams replied with a direct “Yes.”

A separate comment made to EW by star John Boyega, meanwhile, reiterates that there’s a lot more to Rise than meets the eye. In fact, the actor found the screenplay so incredibly dense he had to read it again and again to get his head around it. “[I] read the script six more times because there was so much information in there,” Boyega explained.

Make no mistake, this is going to be one big movie. At 2 hours and 35 minutes, it’s the longest entry in the Star Wars franchise to date, clocking in three minutes longer than its predecessor The Last Jedi. Still, that’s not all that lengthy in the grand scheme of things – it’s far shorter than Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, for example – so it’s no surprise that it’s overflowing with content.

As both the closer to the Sequel Trilogy and the final chapter in the Skywalker Saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has a lot on its plate. Let’s hope we’re left pleasantly surprised by its contents when it hits theaters on December 20th.