Why Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Was More Difficult to Name Than The Last Jedi

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is just days away and fans are curious to see how this all shakes out. Kathleen Kennedy is the head of Lucasfilm and the one overseeing J.J. Abrams steering this thing home. She talked to io9 about the weight of ending the series and how hard it was to put a title on The Rise of Skywalker. This is the grand finale that the entire Skywalker Saga has been building to over all these years. Everyone involved realizes how big of a deal the end of this sequel trilogy is and hat getting it all right is going to be paramount with regards to pleasing the fans. The Last Jedi has proved to be so divisive that anything that is not in line with that sort of storytelling could end up being received well be the viewership at large. But, still sticking that landing is going to loom large for every moment that The Rise of Skywalker isn't out there for the public to consume. The CEO talked about how she and Lucasfilm approach each one of these films.

"Yeah. I mean, I think every Star Wars title is very important," Kennedy clarified. "And so we spend a lot of time thinking about it. It was interesting. We came to the title pretty late on this movie because I think all of us were so immersed in creating the story. And I'm a big believer, I think the author should fundamentally drive the title and Chris [Terrio] and J.J. [Abrams] writing the script, it was important to let them really spend time with understanding what this was and all the nuances of what the mysteries were that were being revealed. So I think you'll find when you see the movie, it was a very apt title."

Abrams is also on the record giving his read about how much of a tightrope the road to this finished film has been. It can't have been easy to deliver on the hype of the last year and change. There's also the elephant in the room with following up the most hotly debated film in the entire Star Wars canon. But, he's ready to end this thing on his terms.

"Endings are the thing that scare me the most," Abrams explained to Entertainment Weekly. "This is about bringing this thing to a close in a way that is emotional and meaningful and also satisfying in terms of actually answering [as many] questions as possible," he explained. "So if years from now, someone's watching these movies, all nine of them, they're watching a story that is as cohesive as possible."

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