Disclaimer: This post contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was quite the fan service frenzy. Almost as if making up for Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s unwillingness to rely on nostalgia, this saga-capping movie was packed to the brim with moments designed to check off boxes and please fans in the biggest way possible.

One such moment was the return of Harrison Ford as Han Solo. But how on earth did they get the famous actor back? He notoriously seemed to want out of the role ever since The Empire Strikes Back, so how did director J.J. Abrams actually get him to return? Well, apparently, it wasn’t that hard.

“We had a meeting and talked about what it would be,” Abrams told Vanity Fair. “Harrison, who is one of the great people ever, and incredibly thoughtful about everything that he does, all he ever wants is to understand the utility of the character. ‘What is my role?’ It was about sitting with him and explaining what our intention was. We talked about it for quite a while, I sent him the pages. He got it, and of course, as you can see, he was wonderful.”

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Of course, this moment between father and son needed to be more than just fan service, it needed to serve a real function. 

“At least for J.J. and I, we thought that this finally was Ren, after the death of his mother, being able to really ask for forgiveness, to ask his father for forgiveness, and make some kind of peace,” Co-writer Chris Terrio said. “He cannot go back and take back what he has done to his father, but as Han says, ‘Your mother’s gone but what she stood for and what she fought for, that’s not gone,” so he still can make amends in the future.”

“[It’s important] to have him be in that scene,” Abrams said, “to have Kylo get to dramatize the thing that he’d been playing some form of [in his head].”

All in all, I can see their point. As someone who doesn’t generally like fan service, it didn’t quite resonate with me, but I can see the “why” behind it all, and it does help me appreciate it a bit more. Perhaps when it comes out on Digital I’ll give it another watch and appreciate it.

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SOURCE: Vanity Fair