Star Wars’ Chris Terrio Could Have Written Three More Movies After The Rise of Skywalker

There are a lot of reasons why Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is one of the most important films in the Star Wars franchise. Not only is Episode IX supposed to close the curtain on Lucasfilm's Star Wars sequel trilogy, but it's also supposed to culminate the entire Skywalker saga. That's 40 years of Skywalker coming to an end.

Sitting down for an interview with Polygon,The Rise of Skywalker writer Chris Terrio talks about the finality that the movie is bringing.

According to the writer, he and director J.J. Abrams had to identify the different loose ends left throughout the saga. Terrio says it was a daunting task to fill in all the loose holes left in the franchise, especially with so many characters coming in Episode IX.

"I think that, by my last count, there were 24 character arcs in the movie. Twenty-four characters whose stories had sort of beginning, middle, and end. So it's daunting, but also, we would tell ourselves that this is just the history of the galaxy. It's not like we've got to make up some confection in order to fit in certain things. We said, "No, this is what happened. This is the battle that happened. This was the chance that they took. This was the plan."

Fitting so many different character arcs in one movie was quite a challenge for The Rise of Skywalker's writing team, and Terrio admits that if Lucasfilm had given them the chance they could have written three more movies for the sequel trilogy.

However, while Terrio and Abrams wanted to keep exploring the story set out before them, they also understood that the trilogy had to come to an end. Star Wars has to move forward – even though the future seems rather uncertain after Episode IX premieres later this month.

Like Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) says, sometimes we have to let the past die.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker premieres December 20, 2019.

Read: The Rise of Skywalker to Feature New Force Powers that Could 'Infuriate' Star Wars Fans