Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Director J.J. Abrams Confirms the Film Is Finished

.@starwars launched 42 years ago. And 24 days from now, the final chapter will be revealed in [...]

By Jamie Lovett

Star Wars fans, JJ Abrams has good news for you. Director JJ Abrams confirmed today on Good Morning America that work on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is complete. Abrams oversaw reshoots on the final installment of the Skywalker saga through October. He and his team finished editing the film yesterday. Abrams told EW in October about the extra challenges this film carried compared to The Force Awakens. "We always knew we were going to have three fewer months to postproduction this film," Abrams said. "So much is still being worked on. It's literally a practical race to get it finished."

Even with all that, Abrams felt better positioned to finish The Rise of Skywalker than he did at the same point in 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."

On top of everything else, this film also marks the conclusion of the Skywalker saga, the story that began in the first Star Wars film. Endings are the thing that scare me the most," Abrams said. "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. 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 stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Naomi Ackie, Richard E. Grant, Keri Russell, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, and Carrie Fisher.

Are you excited about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker? Let us know how you feel about it in the comments. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens in theaters on December 20th.

Star Wars is also headed to the Disney+ streaming service. The Mandalorian is now streaming on DIsney+. A show following Obi-Wan Kenobi is in the works, with Ewan MacGregor returning to the role. A series about Rogue One's Cassian Andor is also in development.

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