Star Wars Writer Says The Rise of Skywalker Doesn’t Erase The Last Jedi (SPOILERS)

In an interview with The Wrap, Star Wars screenwriter Chris Terrio spoke about why The Rise of Skywalker doesn’t erase what was established by The Last Jedi. Here are highlights:

On those who say the new film changes what The Last Jedi established: “I think they’re missing the point, which is that they’re in dialogue with ‘Episode VIII’. It’s not that it’s a meta-story or a rivalry between Rian and J.J. Rather, it’s about taking the ideas that came from ‘VIII’ and trying to complicate them and develop them and to have some new surprises.”

On starting from scratch: “We are both a little superstitious about starting with material that might lead us in a direction that’s different than the one we might’ve gone in naturally. So we didn’t begin with the previous script. There may have been certain elements that we used that had been in the original script and we weren’t aware of it. The Guild makes the determination about those things. We didn’t have a bad relationship to Colin’s material. We just didn’t start with it. It’s not a juicy story of intrigue or anything.”

On the revelation about Rey: “When Rey learns that Leia always knew, that she was the grandchild of her greatest enemy, a Palpatine, she trained Rey anyway, because she understood that blood is not destiny. That moved us a lot, that a child of Palpatine should be the apprentice of two Skywalkers, and Rey, who is really royalty of the Dark Side, should be the one, raised as an orphan, a beggar, a scavenger, literally living in the ruins of the war that her ancestors created. That there’s this idea the royalty of the Dark Side was put in a basket and floated down the river, to then grow up in the most improbable of circumstances and then finally to be offered the throne, felt extremely strong to us.”