Anna Daniels
Even more so than the question of whether Rey and Ren had the hots for each other, what interests us most about Abrams’ remarks is how they kind of tear a very common (and, frankly, somewhat justified) criticism of the Star Wars sequels to shreds. You’ll recall that Abrams directed The Force Awakens, then handed off The Last Jedi to Rian Johnson; Abrams was then recruited to finish off the trilogy after the director who was originally attached to Rise of Skywalker, Colin Trevorrow, departed due to creative differences. (Those differences weren’t that great, though; Trevorrow still received a story credit on the flick.)
For those keeping score at home, this means that Lucasfilm parent company Disney’s original plan was to have a different filmmaker contributing each of the sequel films. It’s also been noted that many of the bold narrative choices made by Johnson in The Last Jedi were kind of undone by Abrams with Rise of Skywalker (the issue of Rey’s parentage, for example).
All of this has led to the observation that Disney began work on the sequel trilogy with no overarching plan for how the narrative would go, instead just kind of winging it and hoping that each new filmmaker would seamlessly pick up from where the last left off. The case could be made that Disney should have known better; look at its other high-profile subsidiary, Marvel Studios, which has crafted the highest-grossing film franchise in history under the guiding hand of one guy (Kevin Feige) tasked with making sure that the overall narrative remains relatively unified.
Abrams, however, brings up an interesting point: that the original Star Wars trilogy, those films most beloved by the fandom, also didn’t have its grand design in place from the start. Indeed, many of the key plot elements — such as Darth Vader being Luke’s father, and Luke and Leia being brother and sister — fell into place pretty late in the game. This is why Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back — widely considered to be the best movie in the Skywalker Saga, and one of the greatest science fiction films of all time — deigned to give us the sight of Luke and Leia, whom we would learn in the next movie were not only brother and sister but twins, engaged in a passionate smooch.
All of which is to say: look, fans, we can all gripe about the sequels’ narrative not being consistent, but let’s apply a little consistency ourselves. The flicks may have been a bit confused about Rey and Ren’s relationship, but at least they never forced us to watch twin siblings making out.
Written by: Looper
