Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Writer Says He's Never Rewritten a Script as Much as This

Crafting the final chapter in a storyline that launched back in 1977 wasn't a task that writer Chris Terrio took lightly, as he recently revealed that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker earned more rewrites than any other film he had worked on. The filmmaker didn't specify what parts of the script took the most effort or how drastically different the various incarnations of the story there were, with his comments merely reflecting how much passion the crew had for the Skywalker Saga and how they wanted to ensure they were delivering audiences the best version of this story that they could.

"I've never rewritten a film as much as this one," Terrio shared with Business Insider. "It's like a tide. There's a new script every morning. But we just keep going at it and going at it, loosely thinking that it's not good enough. It's never good enough."

Terrio clearly didn't make any of these changes on a whim, as he knew that any adjustment would impact the work of other members of the crew. The writer went on to detail just how skilled the production team was at accomodating for these alterations.

"Luckily, the production team is so good that they can shift and adjust," Terrio pointed out. "We're course-correcting as we go – we're trying things, and some things don't work and some things aren't ambitious enough. Some things are overly ambitious. Some things are too dense. Some things are too simple. Some things are too nostalgic. Some things are too out-of-left-field. We're finding our balance."

In the years since the project headed into production, fans have heard about a number of sequences from the cast and crew that didn't ultimately appear in the theatrical cut. Some fans even began to campaign for a release of the "J.J. Abrams Cut," with star Greg Grunberg recently pointing out how he didn't understand why some fans didn't think the director's vision was realized.

"I never understood that. I talked to J.J. as friends throughout the entire process," Grunberg shared with The Hollywood Reporter in reference to the social media campaigns. "Every night, I'd be like, 'How's it going?' Every time, he was so positive. I'm being completely honest here, but not once did he ever tell me that there was any pressure on him to cut things out. It's part of the creative process, obviously. [Lucasfilm president] Kathy Kennedy is brilliant; the people at Disney are brilliant. They give notes, but ultimately, it's up to J.J., the director, who they really trust."

He added, "Personally, I don't think there's any truth to that, and I would be surprised if there's a 'J.J. cut.' Every movie goes through a series of cuts; it's just the nature of it. You see what works, what you need more of and where you need clarity. So, I think that's all a part of the creative process. I don't buy into it at all."

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on March 31st.

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