Force Quit

THE SAGA REACHES ITS SHATTERING CONCLUSION IN STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER. “WE WERE ALL DEEPLY MOVED TO TELL THIS PARTICULAR STORY,” JJ ABRAMS TELLS SFX.

- Nick Setchfield And Darren Scott

THE PROPHECY IS AN ANCIENT ONE. It was told a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, among the barren, sun-beaten dunes of Tatooine. Or at least the southern desert wastes of Tunisia which were doubling for that distant world, as far from the moneyed glitz of Hollywood as Luke Skywalker’s home planet is from the bright centre of the universe.

As the filmmakers grappled with malfunctioning droids and sand-choked electrical equipment, Mark Hamill spent time between camera set-ups chatting to director George Lucas, whose shy, achingly awkward exterior concealed a sense of ambition that was either breathtaking or laughable. “He said ‘Um, how’d you like to be in Episode IX?’” Hamill later recalled. “This is 1976.”

Forty-three years on – the same span, bogglingly, between that first film and the creation of Flash Gordon in 1933 – Hamill has his name on the poster for The Rise Of Skywalker, the ninth chapter in the all-conquering, generation-straddling Star Wars saga. It’s pitched as the pay-off, the grand climax, the last hurrah of the Skywalking bloodline: one final binary sunset to cap a trilogy of trilogies. To quote a Corellian scoundrel, let’s blow this thing and go home…

As long games go, it’s impressive. “It wasn’t long after I began writing Star Wars that I realized the story was more than a single film could hold,” said George Lucas in 1994. “As the saga of Skywalkers and Jedi Knights unfolded, I began to see it as a tale that would take at least nine films to tell.” All is as the great bearded, plaid-shirted seer foretold. Well, not quite – Lucas surrendered his galaxy to Disney in 2012. While he was consulted on the storyline for