Maryann Brandon, editor of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," spoke candidly about the making of the film for an interview on “The Rough Cut” podcast, as noted by IndieWire. Brandon even admitted that the film is fan service, a common critique of the movie.
“Look, sure, it’s fan service,” the editor said, “[but] if you didn’t service the fans, it would be, ‘Oh, he didn’t go along with the history of ‘Star Wars’ and what it all means.’”
As for negative reception from critics, Brandon said, “In a time when the whole world is polarized, it should not be a film that is polarizing. Basically, the message of the film is, ‘Hey you know what? You can be bad and good can come into your life. And maybe if you’re open-minded to it, extraordinary things can change your mind. And you have to believe there’s always hope.’”
Brandon also spoke about how the rushed scheduling put a strain on the crew. “We were definitely still trying to figure out a lot of stuff,” she said. “It’s a struggle. It affected everything. About a third of the way through, [Lucasfilm president] Kathy [Kennedy] was like, ‘JJ has got to spend more time in the cutting room.’ And I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Not with the schedule that we were on. Not with what he was dealing with on a daily basis…he was just exhausted at the end of the day.” She added that the team had three months less time to work on the film compared to "The Force Awakens."
"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" is in theaters now.
