While he didn’t necessarily feel constrained by The Force Awakens, it’s clear that J.J. Abrams feels that The Rise of Skywalker is Star Wars with the shackles off, and talking to Total Film he explains why he feels that way now the Skywalker Saga is coming to a close.
“On this one, I let myself be, at least in the way I was approaching the thing, freer. In Episode 7, I was adhering to a kind of approach that felt right for Star Wars in my head. It was about finding a visual language, like shooting on locations and doing practical things as much as possible. And we continue that in Episode 9, but I also found myself doing things that I’m not sure I would have been as daring to do on Episode 7.”
“Rian helped remind me that that’s why we’re on these movies – not to just do something that you’ve seen before. I won’t say that I felt constrained or limited on 7, but I found myself wanting to do something that felt more consistent with the original trilogy than not. And on 9, I found myself feeling like I’m just gonna go for it a bit more.”
We’ll find out exactly what going for it looks like when The Rise of Skywalker arrives on 19th December.