Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Director Says His Movie Isn’t 'Flipping Off' Rian Johnson

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker might have ignored some of the major themes introduced by Star Wars: The Last Jedi and retconned some of the major choices of its predecessor, however, Episode IX director J.J. Abrams says that his movie isn't trying to "flip off" the sequel to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Speaking in an interview with the press for a recent event for the Academy, Abrams responds to the suggestion that The Rise of Skywalker was created to ignore all of the creative decisions presented by The Last Jedi. According to the filmmaker, Episode IX isn't "flipping off" its predecessor, explaining that he loved Rian Johnson's Star Wars movie and that he wasn't trying to backtrack any of the choices that the director made.

"It will be a much more interesting answer if there were conflict. The truth is that I was getting [The Force Awakens] up and running, I was nothing but grateful that a director and writer I admire as much as Rian was coming in to do that," the director explained, "Not expecting to come back to this, it was just fun to watch what was happening and get to respond to it. When I was called to come on to this movie, of course I wish we had that time that we didn't."

The director said that The Last Jedi gave the production "opportunities that would never have been there. Because, of course, he made choices that no one else would have made."

Abrams goes on to elaborate on the scene which fans feel like a jab towards The Last Jedi, the one where Luke (Mark Hamill) tells Rey (Daisy Ridley) that "A Jedi's weapon deserves more respect," after the young Jedi tries to toss it in the fire.

The filmmaker explains that the scene wasn't meant to throw shade at The Last Jedi, instead it was meant to build on the film, saying that Luke learned something after the events of Episode VIII.

What do you think? Is The Rise of Skywalker trying to make jabs at The Last Jedi? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is currently screening in cinemas.

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