Star Wars writer Chris Terrio denies The Rise of Skywalker is a 'rejection' of The Last Jedi

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker co-writer Chris Terrio says Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi was “a gift” for the script of the final film in the Skywalker saga, and refuted interpretations of the film that suggest it snubs Johnson’s film.

In an insightful new interview with Indiewire, Oscar-winner Terrio discusses how TLJ impacted TROS, and he says any fans who are interpreting certain events and actions in the new film as a “rejection” of the 2017 film are wrong.

Spoilers incoming...

While The Rise of Skywalker is doing gang busters at the box office, it’s also proving to be another controversial entry into the canon.

One aspect of the film that some have taken issue with is that it seems to ignore a lot of the events of 2017’s The Last Jedi, dropping many of the themes established in Rian Johnson’s equally divisive film. Some have seen this as gesture of reconciliation towards the vocal fanbase who actively disliked Johnson’s film, but Terrio denies this is the case.

Read more: Terrio explains why Rose was sidelined

In TROS when Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker appears as a Force ghost on Ahch-To, his first act is to stop Daisy Ridley’s Rey from throwing his old Lightsaber into a fire, telling her he was wrong to go into exile. This comes after Luke dismissively tossed the same Lightsaber over his shoulder at the start of TLJ, a moment that some fans said was out of character. However Terrio says any change to Luke between the two films was purely character-driven.

“So, for example, Luke stopping Rey from tossing a saber away. Yeah, that could be a meta way to read that and think of it as some kind of rejection of The Last Jedi, but that’s not the case,” Terrio explains. “That moment for us was about Luke having learned something and Rey having grown, and he will not let Rey make the same mistake that he did.”

Luke sacrificed himself to save the Resistance in TLJ, and is now more reflective as a Force ghost adds Terrio.

Read more: Fans’ main complaints with The Last Jedi

“Like any good parent, he’d say, ‘Learn from my mistakes, and I won’t let you throw away your inheritance, really,’ because it is her inheritance, both Anakin’s saber, which is Luke’s saber, and Leia’s saber, are her inheritance.”

Elsewhere in Indiewire’s wide-ranging and spoileriffic chat with Chris Terrio, he discusses the return of Palpatine, Rey’s parentage reveal, and the film’s final scene. Read it in full here.

The Rise of Skywalker has made £39.4 million at the UK box office so far, and is now the UK’s seventh biggest film of 2019 after just two weeks of release.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is in cinemas now.