The Last Alliance

Four Decades After Star Wars Began, J.j. Abrams Has Returned To Usher In The Series’ Final Act. With New Heroes Emerging And Old Favourites Returning, Empire Talks To The Cast Of The Rise Of Skywalker To Find Out How They Brought The Saga Home

- James Dyer

HOW THE HELL DO YOU END STAR WARS?

After eight-core films, 42 years and a single story that has shaped the childhoods of three generations, placing a worthy capstone on something so colossal is no trivial task. For J.J. Abrams, concluding the franchise he’d worshipped since childhood was never going to be a case of simply placing a full stop, tipping his hat and waving goodbye. So long, and thanks for all the Sith.

Abrams’ has been a task more daunting by far: to create one great film that wraps up three films, while being a worthy climax to nine films, which just happen to make up the most famous series in history. How do you tackle a proposition of such magnitude?

The answer, it turned out, was simpler than he imagined. With a little help from co-writer Chris Terrio, Abrams looked back at the entire saga and took the story back to basics. Because beneath the Republic politics, separatist factions and taxation of trade routes, Star Wars, at its core, is extremely simple: a primal story of good versus evil.

All it needed was a crucible: a challenge so overwhelming it would make this final showdown a conflict for the ages.

“We were sitting outside a hotel in London and J.J. just laid the story out over an hour-and-a-half,” recalls Daisy Ridley. “I had to go away and take it all in. Later, I emailed him and said, ‘Sorry, can I just check? Did you actually say this is happening?’”

oRIGINALLY, IT WAS all going to end with midi-chlorians. Those ineffable, inexplicable microbes that impregnated Shmi Skywalker, enthralled Qui-Gon Jinn and flummoxed fans when they were introduced in The Phantom Menace came within a Wookiee hair’s breadth of being the real stars of Episode IX.

When George Lucas gift-wrapped the