Star Wars Director J.J. Abrams Says Fans Still Don't Know Anything About The Rise of Skywalker

There have been just a couple of trailers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and there likely won't be any more between now and the time the film hits theaters next month. The entire Star Wars franchise has been building to this single film and, like Marvel's Avengers: Endgame, every precaution is being taken to ensure that the film's secrets are being kept under wraps. Of course, the Internet has its theories about Episode IX, and plenty of fans think that the footage in the trailers is enough to piece together at least a few important plot points. According to director J.J. Abrams, that simply isn't the case.

Abrams spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the new Star Wars cover story, unpacking what people can expect from Rise of Skywalker when it hits theaters. Coy as ever, Abrams promised that the trailers have yet to scratch the surface of the actual events of the movie, and there are plenty of surprises in store.

"The trailers that have come out are scratching the surface of what the movie is," Abrams said. When asked if there were major action set pieces that have yet to be teased in any of the promo material, the director simply replied, "Yes."

There's a lot going on in The Rise of Skywalker. In fact, so much is happening throughout this franchise-ending film that even its biggest stars had to read Abrams and Chris Terrio's script multiple times to really unpack what was taking place.

John Boyega, who portrays Finn, told EW that he had to "read the script six more times because there was so much information in there."

It's understandable that quite a lot is going on throughout Rise of Skywalker, seeing as how it aims to complete the saga that was started by George Lucas with the first Star Wars film more than 40 years ago. That's a massive undertaking, and Abrams explained that it provides more challenges and a much grander scope than his Disney-backed reboot, The Force Awakens.

"We had more reshoots on Episode VII than this one," Abrams says. "We had more story adjustments on VII than this one. We didn't know if these characters would work, if the actors would be able to carry a Star Wars movie. There were a lot of things we didn't know. On this, we knew who and what worked, and everyone is doing the best work I've ever seen anyone do. But the ambition of this movie is far greater than Force Awakens. What we set out to do was far more challenging. Everything is exponentially larger on this."

Are you looking forward to The Rise of Skywalker? Let us know in the comments!

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20th.