Chris Terrio says he never rewrote a film as much as The Rise of Skywalker

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Opinions on just how well STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER stuck the landing vary drastically from person to person, but it's easily the most divisive film in the franchise since…well, STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI. Getting a blockbuster as massive as THE RISE OF SKYWALKER off the ground is never an easy task, and Business Insider got a look at The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker which includes a quote from co-writer Chris Terrio, who said that the film went through more rewrites than any other movie in his career.

I’ve never rewritten a film as much as this one. It’s like a tide. There’s a new script every morning. But we just keep going at it and going at it, loosely thinking that it’s not good enough. It’s never good enough…Luckily, the production team is so good that they can shift and adjust. We’re course-correcting as we go – we’re trying things, and some things don’t work and some things aren’t ambitious enough. Some things are overly ambitious. Some things are too dense. Some things are too simple. Some things are too nostalgic. Some things are too out-of-left-field. We’re finding our balance.

Rewriting a major film on the fly is definitely not unheard of in this business, and while it's been done with great success plenty of times, I'm not convinced that STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is one of them. The film felt more than a little over-stuffed, and not all of the ideas were pulled off as successfully as they could have been; from my point of view, the entire sequel trilogy would have benefited from from having a road-map in place from day one. STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is now available on Digital/DVD/Blu-ray/4K Ultra HD.