J.J. Abrams knows what audiences think of him. “I’ve never been great at endings,” the filmmaker said just hours after delivering a finished version of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” With some hesitation, Abrams added, “I don’t actually think I’m good at anything, but I know how to begin a story. Ending a story is tough.”

This is an unusual admission for Abrams, having just directed and co-written the “Star Wars” film that, when it opens Dec. 20, promises to be the final installment in a nine-movie narrative about the Skywalker clan. Moviegoers have seen the curtain come down on this saga twice already: with “Return of the Jedi,” in 1983, which concluded with Luke Skywalker and his allies seemingly triumphant over the treacherous Empire; and again, in 2005, with “Revenge of the Sith,” which tracked the final steps of Luke’s father, Anakin, on his dark path to becoming the malevolent Darth Vader.

But what seemed like closed history was reopened once more in 2015, when “The Force Awakens” began a third trilogy in which the old guard of the original “Star Wars” movies fought alongside a new generation of heroes and villains. True to his boast, Abrams — who, after some trepidation, directed and helped write the screenplay for that film — inaugurated this trilogy with considerable fanfare as “The Force Awakens” went on to gross more than $2 billion worldwide. It was the last and only “Star Wars” film he intended to make.