In a glossy 2019 interview with The New York Times, J.J. Abrams said the quiet part out loud. “I’ve never been great at endings,” the director admitted, foreshadowing the results of his then-upcoming movie, Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker. “I don’t actually think I’m good at anything,” he continued, “but I know how to begin a story. Ending a story is tough.”

Despite Abrams and his team’s Herculean efforts to deliver a massive blockbuster spectacle that could also neatly tie together three trilogies' worth of story and character, The Rise of Skywalker was an abject failure. The movie was panned by fans and critics alike, and performed worse at the box office than Episodes VII or VIII. To quote the director’s prophetic interview again: “Sticking this landing is one of the harder jobs that I could have taken.”

Abrams has essentially gone into hiding ever since, ensconced in a nebulous $500 million contract with Warner Bros. that’s yet to yield anything tangible beyond one new show you probably missed. But that’s a surprise because, while Abrams may be correct that he’s bad at endings (and not just where Star Wars........

© Polygon