Star Wars Director J.J. Abrams Wasn't Sure About One of the Most Iconic Scenes in The Rise of Skywalker

Star Wars director J.J. Abrams wasn't sure about one of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker's most iconic scenes. The reveal about the Luke and Rey scene comes from legendary composer John Williams on the digital extra features. He and the music editor had the idea of the Jedi master lifting his X-Wing just like Yoda did in Empire Strikes Back. It's a fun thing for veteran Star Wars fans to catch, but Abrams needed some convincing that it would work. But, at his core, the director is a fan too, and it's really hard to tell Williams no, especially when it comes to Star Wars.

He began, "Yoda lifts [the X-wing] in The Empire Strikes Back. Ramiro Belgardt, the music editor, he said '[the scene of Luke lifting the X-wing] should be exactly the music that we had for Yoda. And Actually, J.J. questioned it, he said 'Well, is that, are we doing that right?' And everybody said 'Oh yes, it has to be. You know, the fans will all know.'"

"So I went back to the score of Empire Strikes Back, to get those bars exactly out of them," Williams added. "That actual little central piece of taking the ship up is exactly as we had it before."

Abrams has had to respond to the avalanche of criticism over his choices, but he had remained open to hearing critique.

"I'd say that they're right," Abrams said in a previous Q+A. "The people who love it more than anything are also right. I was asked... 'How did you go about pleasing everyone?' I was like, what? Not to say that should be what anyone tries to do anyway, but how would one even go about it? Especially with Star Wars. I don't need to tell anyone here, we live in a moment where everything immediately seems to default to outrage. And there's a kind of M.O. of it's either exactly as I see it or you're my enemy."

He continued, "It's a crazy thing that there is such a norm that seems to be devoid of nuance — it's not about Star Wars, it's about everything — and compassion and acceptance... It's a crazy moment, so we knew starting this any decision we made, a design decision, a musical decision, a narrative decision would please someone and infuriate someone else. And they're all right."

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is available for Digital purchase right now. The adventure comes to DVD, Blu-ray and 4K disc March 31

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