Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker might be one of the most highly anticipated films of the year, but Richard Grant is worried that despite its potential for greatness, one major character "twist" is going to end up having the same reaction as the final season of Game of Thrones.
The Withnail and I star just recently went on an interview with Yahoo Entertainment to talk about his first-ever Star Wars movie, and during the discussion, the actor was asked about what's going to surprise fans most about Episode IX.
According to Grant, there's a big character plot twist in The Rise of Skywalker, something that makes a huge dent on the entire Skywalker saga.
"The big character plot twist that I had no idea would be coming," Grant told the entertainment news outlet, "It made total emotional sense and story sense and I thought that was really smart. And I think that's an incredible thing to take something that began with the first movie in 1977 [Star Wars: A New Hope] and nine movies later reach a conclusion/resolution."
However, as big as the twist is, the British actor warns that the reveal "runs the risk of the Game of Thrones syndrome," because in all honesty, "there's no way you can please all the people all the time because people are so emotionally invested n this story."
That is true. The Star Wars fanbase has a lot of passion, though not everyone really looks for the same thing in the franchise.
One of the best examples to give is Star Wars: The Last Jedi, a commercially and critically successful entry in Disney's new Star Wars trilogy. Sure, The Last Jedi might have brought the franchise to a new direction with the twists and turns that it made in 2016, but the more traditional segment of the fanbase did not really appreciate how the film subverted fan expectations and "misused" legacy characters like Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).
Guess Episode IX runs that kind of risk as well. But you don't really gain anything if you don't take any risks, do you?
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker premieres December 20, 2019.
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Episode IX