[Trailer] Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Brings Skywalker Saga To An End

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will be the third installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, following The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017), and the final episode of the nine-part Skywalker saga. It is being produced by Lucasfilm and J. J. Abrams’s production company Bad Robot Productions and will be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

The Rise of Skywalker will see the surviving Resistance face the First Order once more — while reckoning with the past and their own inner turmoil. Meanwhile, the ancient conflict between the Jedi and the Sith reaches its climax, bringing the Skywalker saga to a definitive end. With the power and knowledge of generations behind them, the final battle commences.

The film’s ensemble cast includes Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong’o, Keri Russell, Kelly Marie Tran, Ian McDiarmid, and Billy Dee Williams.

Carrie Fisher, who played Leia Organa, died in December 2016. Variety and Reuters reported that she had been planned for a key role in The Rise of Skywalker. In January 2017, Lucasfilm stated that there were no plans to digitally generate Fisher’s performance as they had for Rogue One.  The following April, Fisher’s brother Todd revealed that Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, had granted Disney the rights to use recent footage of Fisher. However, a week later, Kathleen Kennedy stated that Fisher would not appear in the film.

In July 2018, J. J. Abrams announced that unused footage of Fisher from The Force Awakens would be used to help complete the story. A week later, it was revealed that unseen footage from The Last Jedi would also be used. According to Todd Fisher, “There’s a lot of minutes of footage. I don’t mean just outtakes. This is unused, new content that could be woven into the storyline. … It’s going to look like it was meant to be; like it was shot yesterday.”

In July 2018, Keri Russell was in talks to play a part with some “action-heavy fight scenes”, and it was confirmed that Billy Dee Williams will return as Lando Calrissian, onscreen for the first time since 1983’s Return of the Jedi — marking one of the longest intervals between portrayals of a character by the same actor in American film history

Principal photography began in August 2018 in England and wrapped in February 2019. Post-production was completed on November 24; the film is scheduled to be released on December 20 in the United States. The film will be released on Disney+ in 2020.