Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker‘s Ending Tweaked During Production

We waited a long time to find out anything about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. We were parsing comments made by J.J. Abrams around his initial hesitation about rejoining the franchise looking for clues. Then, tanks to the Star Wars Celebration, we now have a bounty of details to sift through. There is, of course, that enigmatic title. And all the juicy details revealed during that thrilling teaser. There’s the unexpected return of Emperor Palpatine. And now we know that The Rise of Skywalker‘s ending changed during production.

Rey herself, Daisy Ridley, spoke with Jake Hamilton (h/t to CinemaBlend) about how the film’s ending has been evolving. Naturally, she didn’t reveal a single plot point, but she did discuss how the ending has been somewhat fluid. There was the version from Abrams and Chris Terrio’s script, and then, as happens on many films during production, the ending was tweaked. Ridley talks about a “slightly different beat” that was added. She also expresses excitement about what that ending will be—even though she’s the star of the film, she won’t know exactly how the saga ends until she sees a final cut.

Listen to Ridley’s comments here:

Daisy Ridley tells me about how SHE learned about the ending of THE RISE OF SKYWALKER! pic.twitter.com/xYijqmKusL

— Jake Hamilton (@JakesTakes) April 14, 2019

Things are usually fairly fluid for a film the size of The Rise of Skywalker. Abrams and his editors Maryann Brandon and Stefan Grube are hard at work in post-production now, and there are always surprising twists and turns added during the process. There will also likely be additional re-shoots, which is commonplace for massive tentpole films nowadays. The ending that Ridley is referring to right now could be tweaked and tweaked again. While the overall story arc for The Rise of Skywalker has likely been generally in place since Abrams, Terrio, and the rest of the Star Wars brain trust worked out the plot, the way that ending unfolds will likely be in flux until they have their final cut.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20, 2019.

Featured image: Rey (Daisy Ridley) in STAR WARS: EPISODE IX. Courtesy Lucasfilm/Walt Disney Studios