Editor Maryann Brandon discusses the forthcoming The Rise of Skywalker and the challenges presented by the passing of Carrie Fisher in real life, and Luke Skywalker in the GFFA.
“Unfortunately Carrie died, but she didn’t obviously die in Episode VIII. She’s a character that had to be figured out, and that was a huge challenge, but I think J.J. and Chris Terrio did an amazing job. Luke died, which was a problem. So we had those two opposing problems, so I think what you’re seeing trend is that the setup was difficult to deal with.”
Of course, J.J. Abrams didn’t write or direct The Last Jedi, so the choices made by Rian Johnson need to be honoured and addressed in Rise.
“I just think that when you’re doing a trilogy, you can’t just abandon a story. So whatever he chose to put in that film, those things that are dangling have to be dealt with. And you have to deal with them honestly, so you thought the whole thing through.”
“J.J. wasn’t supposed to do Episode IX, so that was a whole other thing, because he came on late and he and Chris had to write the script in a shorter amount of time.”
