The MakingStarWars.net team reevaluated every quote we could find about The Rise of Skywalker that appeared to have substance which could guide our hand in understanding the movie and what we’ve been hearing about the film. The majority of the answers are fluff and as boring as ever. But when you take them all together and we get a sense of the boundaries of the discussion points that are on the table and we start to get a sense of certain dynamics in the movie. Hopefully by pulling these quotes and putting them in one place we can get a sense of something about the The Rise of Skywalker. The point of these interviews is to use words but say absolutely nothing at all. But when you put all the words together they do say a little.

Thank you to the MakingStarWars.net team for digging up all of these interviews and debating the meaning, if any that we can reasonably take or leave from the discussions below. And a big thank you to the interviewers who asked the right questions to get any colorful answers at all.

We did our best to present the quotes without a lot of commentary and just the context. However, the curation of quotes itself creates a sort of commentary just by allowing certain quotes into this “archive” when held in comparison to what we left out.

DAISY RIDLEY

JEDI TRAINING/SKILLS Rey “may have started the books,” she would guess she’s “getting through them.” (SW Celebration) “My answer is not the end of the story , because there are many more months to come, but the lightsaber she inherited from Luke lives.” (SW Celebration) Daisy artfully avoided new power discussions by throwing it to Abrams who says “there are some extraordinary things Rey does in this movie” some of it thanks to the fight choreographer. (SW Celebration)

Rey’s relationship to Ben Solo When asked about the Kylo and Rey relationship: “I guess we’ll have to wait and see.” (SW Celebration) Essentially answered this way, and Ridley said she gave her thoughts to Abrams and that the Rey/Kylo relationship will be explored “in greater depth” to GMA. On some ABC rebroadcasts that part of the video has now been intentionally edited out, but it remains captured in this tweet. No more semi-naked Kylos. Jokes: “Unfortunately.” (SW Celebration) When asked about Rey’s fictive Facebook status she say “I’d say it’s complicated.” She then proceeds to to joke that maybe Rey wouldn’t update her facebook status but Kylo’s would be very emo. (MTV) Regarding the next quote, we feel if fans are going to pick one quote to watch and not read, they should watch this one (about 1:46 into the video). Daisy’s expressions and tone add a lot of interesting meaning to what she’s saying. To try and not fall into bias too much, we won’t give our take on what her expressions and tones indicate to us. “I do know about Reylo. I don’t know how I feel about it, because everyone’s sort of talking about the toxic thing of a relationship, when it’s like—it’s essentially emotional. It’s a tricky road. I do feel like, deep down, Kylo thinks what he’s doing is right, and he doesn’t think he’s wrong, but he’s also killed so many people. So I can’t REALLY get behind it, no.” The whacky Australian says “There’s going to be a lot of heartbroken people out there.” To which Daisy replies with a carefully knowing look: “Well, maybe there’s redemption , who knows? Maybe we explore it in the film.” (Steele Wars) When speaking about their characters to Grossman, both Ridley and Driver wound up describing similarly lonely and isolated childhoods for these Force-sensitive figures. Rey was literally abandoned by her parents—whoever they may be—and so has trouble comprehending how Kylo could shun his. But Ridley herself is much more understanding of the stress that might come from being raised by Han Solo and Leia Organa: “Having the two coolest parents and sometimes I’m sure it works amazingly, and sometimes it just might not.” (Vanity Fair) Ridley describes Kylo and Rey as “two quite powerful people who feel.” (Vanity Fair) Ridley says that as The Rise of Skywalker begins , “Rey is less inclined to believe that Kylo potentially could redeem himself.” (Vanity Fair) Stated this a few times, always with the emphasis that Rey feels this way at the beginning of the film and redemption is on the table. “I think there’s a part of Rey that’s like, dude, [Kylo,] you fucking had it all, you had it all,” Ridley says. “That was always a big question during filming: you had it all and you let it go.” (Vanity Fair)

REY PARENTAGE On Rey clearly not being the Skywalker, because Ben is: “You’re the first person who said that. He is a Skywalker.” (MTV)

REY AS A CHARACTER “She chose her family. She chose well. She’s surrounded by awesome people. But there’s more resting on her shoulders than on mine. So there are moments where confidence (does a screech sound) … But I think she’s growing too.” (Steele Wars) “The confidence level is higher, but there’s a lot to learn.” Even with a time jump “you can’t fit in all the learning” in that time. (ET) “It’s nice having that shot at the beginning of the teaser,” Ridley says, over avocado toast at a fancy Chicago hotel, “because I think it’s quite a good visual representation of where she is now: confident, calm, less fearful.… It’s still sort of overwhelming, but in a different way. It feels more right—less like inevitable and more like there’s a focus to the journey.” (Vanity Fair)

POE & FINN & REY Could Rey have a love interest in Poe? “So the relationship between Finn, Rey, and Poe on this one, I thought just felt amazing, because it’s friendship, it’s family, it’s just a lovely sort of thing.” (ET) Ridley says Rey is also part of that relationship (between Poe and Finn), but kept apart a bit due to her Force sensitivity. (Vanity Fair) On Rey and Finn’s dynamic in particular: “The great thing that J.J. shows is you see a proper friendship so it’s not all like hunky-dory. They’re friends who clash sometimes. But also you have to be confident to have clashes with your friends and know that everything’s going to be okay.” (USA Today) “It’s a really lovely place to be. The feeling on the resistance base in general is one of hope. So sort of growing up from being alone to being surrounded by people, what a great way to do that.” (USA Today)

FILMING John wrapped just before Daisy. (Yahoo) Daisy thinks that Joonas wrapped, then Naomi wrapped, then John wrapped, and then Daisy. Oscar Isaac is not mentioned, who seems to have wrapped earlier, and Adam who goes unmentioned in all discussions of the last day—but curiously Daisy never says she was working alone. “Everybody was there because we wrapped the film when I wrapped—Oscar had to go somewhere, I believe.” (Jake Hamilton) Ridley notes it was so nice to work with Kelly. (ET)



JOHN BOYEGA

FINN AS A CHARACTER & FINN’S PAST

Finn has found his identity by The Rise of Skywalker and is full-fledged Resistance fighter. (SW Celebration) “Finn gets emotional closure within his identity—what is family, what is friendship, what is love. But as far as Phasma, she dead.” (SW Celebration) Does Finn get information on his past? We “definitely get more information on all the individuals in the film through the dynamics and connections and new relationships. But, yeah you get to learn a lot more about Finn, but a lot of it is about the growth and who he is internally.” (Steele Wars) Satisfied with how Finn’s arc ended up. Especially after the last one, Boyega wanted Finn’s trajectory and legacy to be clarified, “and for us to know more.” (Extra) “Finn is undeniably brave in this movie, and that’s because of the collaboration between himself and Rey and Poe. Them being all together was the magic of this movie.” (Extra) FINN AND ROMANCE



Boyega avoids a love triangle question, by adding in jokes, and agrees with Colbert when Colbert jokes that he’s the galaxy’s most eligible bachelor. (SW Celebration) When asked about Rose and Finn: “She my girl. Nice chemistry. Middle of war. We’re trying to figure ourselves out. Love you one day …” (SW Celebration) On what a love pentagon means: “When you’re just traveling through the galaxy … people start fancying you. It just happens. You can’t break hearts … you end up being in a pentagon.” Boyega’s answer is unclear if serious or joking, given question being asked in the the context of the conversation. (Andrew Freund) On what Finn wants, dating wise: “Finn is distracted by this war right now. Like I said on stage, I mean, trying to figure out who you love and all that kind of stuff with, you know, dodging Kylo Ren, trying to figure out what’s going on with Rey, and all that stuff? It’s a big job.” (ET)

BOYEGA ON PALPATINE “Did you challenge [JJ] on Palpatine [as a nerd who likes to challenge the narrative decisions on set]?” “We had a discussion … I was like, ‘How, how, how does that work?’ And he explained it to me, and I was like “… Okay, JJ”.” “Mind a little bit blown?” “Listen, mind blown. Mind blown. Guy’s a genius.” (Yahoo)

BOYEGA ON THE FILM/FILMING “I know exactly what the fans what. They want to see everybody together. They want to see the dynamics between Rey and Kylo. They want more explanation of the past. So let’s do it like that. I’m glad JJ was on the same exact page.” (SW Show) There are some stunts he’s never done before. Crashing, falling, the works. “Everybody has to fight.” (SW Show) “I thought it was going to be Star Wars: Heirs to the Force. I don’t know what it actually means. Bearing in mind that I’m a part of it, but there were certain changes to the script while we’re filming and I’m not in a lot of the scenes that Rey has with Kylo Ren . So my curiosity just hit the roof.” (USA Today) Throwback to the above, where John describes the drama in this film as: “with, you know, dodging Kylo Ren, trying to figure out what’s going on with Rey, and all that stuff? It’s a big job.” (ET)



ADAM DRIVER

KYLO AND HIS ARC/BACKROUND What’s interesting to you about playing Kylo Ren? Adam: That’s hard to say because we’re working toward something in particular with that character. I don’t want to give anything away. (Vulture) Note that Driver has mentioned this several times, that there’s something he’s known since the beginning, that there’s something which gave Kylo a clear arc, including most recently in Vanity Fair: “An overall arc was very, not vague, the opposite, it was very clear,” Driver said. “There was an end in sight even from the very beginning. The details obviously hadn’t been worked out, but we had talked about the very thing that we’d been working towards with this last one.” (Vanity Fair) “If you were the product of those two people [Han and Leia], two very strong personalities who seemed to be almost more committed to a cause than anything else, what’s that like?” (Vanity Fair) He also points out that, unlike Luke and Rey, Kylo never got to go on a nifty voyage of self-discovery. Instead he grew up under the crushing pressure of massive expectations. “How do you form friendships out of that?” Driver says. “How do you understand the weight of that? And if there’s no one around you guiding you, or articulating things the right way … it can easily go awry.” (Vanity Fair)

KYLO AND REY His character “had been forging this maybe-bond with Rey. The Last Jedi ends with the question in the air: is he going to pursue that relationship more or, when the door of her ship goes up, does that also close that camaraderie? This idea of being alone.” (Vanity Fair) Will Kylo Ren and Rey reforge their own connection? And, if they do, will it be love or simply friendship that unites them? The answer, Driver says, is incredibly complicated: “I don’t think it’s any one thing. The strength in what Rian [Johnson] wrote and what J.J. [Abrams] wrote is it’s never all one thing.” (Vanity Fair)



OSCAR ISAAC

POE’S CHARACTER “No special powers, just a human.” (SW Celebration) You get to see where he’s from, we get to “dirty up his nice fly boy leadership thing” and see that “he has a past as well.” (Extra)

ON THE PLOT/ON FILMING “He’s fighting. The Resistance is decimated … leaderless . It’s in those situations when you finally see people’s true colors.” (Andrew Freund) Note: Isaac has previously likened the Resistance in this movie to guerilla fighters. (USA Today) Photo of the hug was towards the end of filming in Jordan. (Yahoo) Highlight for Isaac: Got to work more with John in this movie. (Yahoo) JJ shot a lot of the scenes with the three heroes all together. (ET) “What they’re trying to do is find allies, and find anyone they can” … as the film goes on you see Poe try to grapple with not only “the lack of leadership, because Leia’s, you know, gone, but also how do you be a leader when there doesn’t seem to be anyone to lead?” (IGN)

POE & FINN & REY “You get to really see these characters together … interacting with each other, going after what they need to go after together, mourning together , they’re fighting together, laughing …” (Extra) “It’s not about just one person,” Isaac says of how his character deals with the strain of leadership and heroism in The Rise of Skywalker. “[It’s about] reaching out to his family, and particularly Finn is his family.” (Vanity Fair) “There has been a bit of shared history that you haven’t seen,” Isaac says. “Whereas in the other films, Poe is this kind of lone wolf, now he’s really part of a group. They’re going out and going on missions and have a much more familiar dynamic now.” (Vanity Fair)



KELLY MARIE TRAN

When asked if she kisses Finn in this movie, she jokes that Finn is a very eligible bachelor, “much like John Boyega.” When asked to answer for real, she never does, and Colbert ends up changing topics. (SW Celebration)

A casual aside, when talking about ideals, as she realizes it’s “the same thing in the Star Wars series” because “Love wins.” (Yahoo)

When asked directly about Rose/Finn: “Finn’s a busy guy. He’s got a lot of things going on in the galaxy.” (Yahoo)

NAOMI ACKIE

The original group are going on a journey together, and she is excited about where Jannah crosses paths with them. (SW Celebration)

Ackie avoided questions of Jannah’s parentage with joke answers about how Lando’s been around. (SW Celebration)

The first day of her filming had a precise thing she had to do in front of at least Oscar. (SW Show)

3 words to describe Jannah: “Cool. Fierce. Strong.” (ET)

“She interacts with the group at a really cool point in the film. She makes her presence known.” (Extra)

ANTHONY DANIELS

“I cannot think of a better one to end in. Neither for me, nor for [3PO].” (Jake Hamilton)

BILLY DEE WILLIAMS

Williams first day of shooting was a big group scene, “there were a lot of extras.” (JJ, SW Celebration)

IAN MCDRIAMID

He thinks the laugh is a real tease—that you see the title and hear the laugh as if rising “from hell” and it’s like “Skywalkers, rising? I don’t think so.” (SW Show)

“People seem to think we had [a revelation] the other morning.” On whether Palpatine/Ian is back: “The headline of that whole panel and trailer is the word tease, so don’t take it too seriously. Have a laugh about it.” (SW Show)

JJ ABRAMS

ON WHAT THIS FILM REPRESENTS/IS It is the final part, but also needs to be its own movie. (SW Celebration) It’s “about this new generation, and what they’ve inherited—the light and the dark—and asking the question as they face the greatest evil: are they prepared? Are they ready?” (SW Celebration) “As a film that resolves nine movies, if you look at all those stories and include this in context, I think [the title] makes a lot of sense.” (Yahoo) “To have to take into account what we’ve inherited, what has come before, and what we do with it, which is part of the fun of exploring the story and discovering it—but it’s also very much the story of the characters in this movie. It’s a story about these characters who have inherited what has come before in prior generations. You know, the sins of the father, and the wisdom that was learned. What have they learned, or are they up to the task.” (The UpComing) There have been ideas since as far back as when George came up with this about where this could go. (MTV) “That’s the challenge of this movie,” Abrams says. “It wasn’t just to make one film that as a stand-alone experience would be thrilling, and scary, and emotional, and funny, but one that if you were to watch all nine of the films, you’d feel like, Well, of course—that!” (Vanity Fair)

PLOT DETAILS The “movie doesn’t pick up immediately after. Some time has gone by.” (SW Celebration) When Jungle base photo was shown, and Abrams knowing that photo was on screen said it was the beginning of the film. (SW Celebration) “This is an adventure the group goes on together.” (SW Celebration) “Epic space adventure”, “many worlds, many places.” (SW Celebration) When asked if everyone on stage during Celebration is together during this movie, given he said there was a journey, JJ tries to avoid the question by rephrasing it. When Colbert throws in Rose’s name, Abrams avoids it again for a bit, with a joke, then finally says: “You have to see what happens in the thing” and then thanks Rian for casting Tran. So, no answer. (SW Celebration) Chewbacca brings the slug creature Klaud into the Resistance. (SW Celebration) Thirty years have gone by since the ending of Return of the Jedi, during which time the newly reborn Republic became complacent and politically stagnant, allowing the rise of the reactionary neo-imperial First Order, whose origins we will learn more about in The Rise of Skywalker. “It was almost like if the Argentine Nazis had sort of got together and actually started to bring that back in some real form,” Abrams says. (Vanity Fair)



KATHLEEN KENNEDY

ON WHAT THIS FILM REPRESENTS/IS This is the “third act of a three act structure.” (SW Celebration) On the intent behind the title: “The Rise of Skywalker” [as a title] doesn’t answer anything. It’s provactive, it asks a lot of questions, and it can mean a lot of different things.” “We didn’t want to have a title that felt like it was telling you the story.” “The word Skywalker … it captures all 40 years of what’s gone before.” (Yahoo)

ON PLOT DETAILS Also gave this answer when specifically asked if Rey is the Skywalker, if we can assume that. On Palpatine: “This has been in the blueprint for a long time. We had not landed one exactly how we might do that—“ “—Always to be in episode IX?” “Yeah.” (Yahoo) “We’ve always recognized that it’s the Skywalkers. It’s a family. It’s a family drama. And, you know, the resolution around that is what was important in what we were doing with this episode. So that was certainly the focus.” (The UpComing)

ON MOOD Kathleen Kennedy on watching the last ten minutes of The Rise of Skywalker says she felt “incredibly moved. It’s where I HOPED it would go.” (Steele Wars) “There’s a loss of innocence, a sense of innocence that existed in the 70s that I don’t think to any extent exists today,” Kennedy says. “I think that has to permeate the storytelling and the reaction to the stories and how they’re set up. It has to feel differently because we’re different.” (Vanity Fair) When asked to sum up the movie in one word: “Hope.” (GMA)



LEV GROSSMAN

Grossman knows that at least one person dies in the film because an actor accidentally let it slip. (Vanity Fair)

When asked if he thought Kylo Ren would die, he said that no; that he thought it was interesting to imagine what happens to a dark sider after the dark side, and that he thought the creatives on this film might feel similarly. While this doesn’t mean Kylo does NOT die, it does suggest that Kylo isn’t the person Lev heard about, unless trickery is afoot. (Reddit AMA)

He assumed the actors would mostly talk about Poe and Finn; did not steer them in discussing Kylo and Rey. (Reddit AMA)

Interviews were conducted during Celebration.

Sources close to the movie say that Skywalker will at long last bring to a climax the millennia-long conflict between the Jedi Order and its dark shadow, the Sith. (Vanity Fair)

MARK HAMILL ON BENING A SPOOKY GHOST:

Hamill told the AP (Via Slashfilm) “I had closure in the last one (The Last Jedi). The fact that I’m involved in any capacity is only because of that peculiar aspect of the Star Wars mythology where if you’re a Jedi, you get to come back and make a curtain call as a Force ghost.“

If the interest is here, we’ll continue to update this collection as reputable and compelling quotes hit the internet. I feel like when you take just these quotes into account, you get a sense of the shape of the film and where they want the heart of it at. But when you mash that up with the spoilers confirmed and not, we can sense albeit abstractly how this saga will end to some extent. But that’s the fun of this part of the wait, anything can still happen. What we know is exciting and and what we don’t know we don’t know even more so at this point.

We have about six months to go until we have three Star Wars trilogies to call our own.