Q & As About 'Star Wars': Which elements of 'The Last Jedi' do you think J.J. Abrams will retcon in the upcoming 'Star Wars: Episode IX'?

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Which elements of 'The Last Jedi' do you think J.J. Abrams will retcon in the upcoming 'Star Wars: Episode IX'?

Oh, Sithspawn. Will The Last Jedi bashing ever stop?

All right. Listen. Apparently, you never took Basic Screenwriting 101 or understand how moviemaking at that level works really works.

First, even though J.J. Abrams did not write or direct Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, he is one of the film’s executive producers, which is the same job title George Lucas had when Lucasfilm Ltd. made The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

That means that even though he was not on-set every day or oversaw production in a hands-on way, he read Johnson’s script way before principal photography began. As executive producer, along with Kathleen Kennedy and others on his decision-making level, he had veto power over Johnson’s script. Thus, if Abrams believed, like quite a few fans seem to think, that The Last Jedi was undoing what he had done in the previous Episode, The Force Awakens, he would have said “We aren’t shooting this!”

That’s right. The Last Jedi would have had to go back to rewrites, delaying production and gumming up the works for Lucasfilm’s ambitious release schedule.

But Abrams liked what he saw. And before Lucasfilm fired Colin Trevorow over creative differences over that director’s ideas for Episode IX, J.J. probably figured he was home free from having to complete the trilogy he started with The Force Awakens.

As it is, while I don’t know for sure what Abrams has in mind for Episode IX, I do not think he has “retconned” anything from The Last Jedi. Snoke is going to remain dead, Kylo Ren will continue to be evil incarnate, and the Resistance will, with Rey and her friends’ help, somehow defeat the First Order.

And, no, I don’t want any retconning, either.