'Star Wars' Director JJ Abrams Addresses Biggest Fan Complaints About 'Force Awakens'
While Star Wars: The Force Awakens was rapturously received when it premiered four years ago, there was one big criticism that some levelled at it.
Many noticed numerous similarities with the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, not least the unlikely hero from a desert planet helping a group of rebels to destroy a massive space superweapon.
Some went as far to call it essentially a remake of the 1977 movie that kick-started it all, though director JJ Abrams has revealed that was never the intention.
J.J. Abrams heard the grumbles of The Force Awakens being too similar to A New Hope, but he reminds fans that #TheRiseOfSkywalker will feel the influence of ALL the films that came before it. pic.twitter.com/m5K3dDTxSK
- Fandango (@Fandango) April 13, 2019
"We have gotten a lot of flak for people saying, 'Oh, Force Awakens was just a remake of New Hope'," the Rise of Skywalker director told Fandango of his 2015 movie.
"And while that was something that obviously that was never the intention, it was about introducing new characters, using the old and there's a natural sense in any hero's journey of certain tenants that will come into play.
"We very much wanted to make sure that we were not somehow inadvertently being so influenced by one thing."
Abrams added: "However the job of [The Rise of Skywalker] is to be the end of nine films.
"So we can't ignore the fact that we come from episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. So it wasn't about saying let's choose that one, let's do a riff on that. It was more how to do these stories culminate, and that was our job."
The first big details for The Rise of Skywalker were released last week, including a first trailer as well as confirmation that Emperor Palpatine will be back.
Abrams has also hinted that there's more to Rey's parentage that we have been led on to believe, the director teasing: "I don't want to say that what happens in Episode 8 [didn't happen]. We have honoured that.
"But I will say that there's more to the story than you've seen."
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will be released on Thursday, 19 December in the UK and Friday, 20 December in the US.
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