Kevin Smith was told the last shot of Episode 9 will “melt your mind”

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

For fans and audiences around the world, the secrets of STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER shall remain under lock and key until the week of its release this December, and not a moment before. However, that fact does not apply to filmmaker Kevin Smith, who got a chance to hang out on set last year and see everything J.J. Abrams and Co. were working up. He could’ve gone anywhere and seen anything, but Smith recently revealed he was talked out of seeing something he was told would “melt your mind.”

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Smith was at San Diego Comic-Con recently to promote his new movie, JAY AND SILENT BOB REBOOT, and IGN managed to speak with him about his time on the STAR WARS set. It all came about after Smith had his near-fatal heart attack last year, which prompted Smith to change his eating and exercise habits, on top of cashing in a promise Abrams made to let him come visit the set when he was feeling better.

While there, he was told by crew members there was a certain section of the Pinewood Studios set that he needed to check out, all before Abrams and several other crew members advised him against it.

“There was a scuttlebutt about the set there at Pinewood [Studios]. They’re like ‘you have to see this. When you see it, it will melt your mind.’ So I ask J.J., ‘they keep telling me I should see the set.’ He’s like ‘don’t. It’s the last shot of the movie.’

Like any sane man and passionate Star Wars fan, hearing people talk about the set in such a mysterious way only made him want to check it out more. According to Smith, Abrams said, “You don’t want this spoiled. You want to be in a theater when this happens. Trust me.” Smith added that other crew members backed up their director, saying, “Other people on the crew were like ‘bro, I wish I hadn’t seen it, but it will melt your mind.’”

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At the end of the day, the desire to remain an unspoiled fan overcame his curiosity. “As inquisitive as I am, and as curious as I am, I desperately wanted to go look, but when you talk to the magician, and the magician is like ‘trust me on this one,’” Smith said. “You know, sometimes as human beings we want to know how they pull the rabbit out of the hat, but J.J. is such a magical magician that I’m just like you know what? Do it. Trick me. I’ll wait and get tricked, even though I could have seen what it was, I was like ‘I’ll sit back. I like your plan.’ [J.J. has] never let me down so far.”

So now that we know the movie has quite the epic final shot, we can only speculate as to what it may be. Could it be more of an emotional mind melt, wherein the series is once again brought full circle, with Rey looking into the distance on Tattooine like Luke did in A NEW HOPE? Knowing the desire to build on the franchise and continue the story (eventually) could it be a shot that teases future movies, and that indeed this is not the end of the road for these characters? It could involve other series characters, or maybe it brings back Ewoks for one more dance party. That would be a different sort of mind melt, though.

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is in theaters December 20.