“We’re not screwing around,” declares The Rise of Skywalker director.

Endings are the thing that scare me the most, admitsJ.J.

It also doesnt mean that theres a list of payoffs that we have to do because of setups.

jj-falcon

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) L to R: Director/Producer/Screenwriter J.J. Abrams ON SET.David James/©Lucasfilm 2015

But we also were very much aware this is the end of the trilogy and it needs to satisfy.

We went into this thing knowing it has to be an ending.

Were not screwing around.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalkeropens Dec. 20.

Anthony Breznican contributed to this report.