'Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker' Will Reveal New Information About Finn And Poe's Pasts

Well-known as a master of posing compelling cinematic questions, J.J. Abrams is finally ready to give some answers in this month's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

"We went into this movie very much in the mindset that this has to be conclusive," he says in a new interview. "It has to. You have to get some answers. You have to learn some things." Evidently, some of those "things" are the backstories of the film's main characters, including former Stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) and hotshot pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac). While the fandom's attention has been on Rey (Daisy Ridley) and wondering who her parents are, Abrams and co-writer Chris Terrio are also taking the time to fill in some gaps for the rest of the main cast members as well.

Vanity Fair is beginning a week's worth of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker coverage, and they're kicking things off with a brief chat with Abrams about a somewhat unexpected angle of the movie's screenplay: touching on Finn and Poe's pasts. Abrams says:

"[Finn's history] is part of the story of this one. And it was alluded to in Episode VII, but there's a bit more light shed on that in this one...I would say that each of the characters get more light shed on their histories. I'm not saying we get full, exhaustive downloads on all of their childhoods and every major step that got them to where they are. But there are a lot of questions about Finn's past, about Poe's past, obviously Rey and Kylo, and then some of the new characters we meet."

And as his quote at the top of this page indicates, the time for questions is over. I'm sure not every single thing will be tied up with a bow, but it sounds like the writers went to great lengths to try to illuminate as much as possible. That's a tough task, especially with this many open questions floating around.

"Endings are very difficult because they need to take everything that's come before, in this case eight films prior, and draw it to a close. So I wanted to make sure in addition to the central story, the main character or characters, I wanted to make sure that you felt that when you were done with this film, you felt like you had some more insight into all of them. That was really important to us."

Here's hoping the big reveal about Finn and Poe's pasts is that the two of them were secretly in a happy, long-term romantic relationship for years before they were both struck by a case of amnesia and flung to separate corners of the galaxy, only to finally realize now that their friendly connection is so much more than they thought. (And you thought The Last Jedi was subversive!)

We'll see exactly how much insight into our favorite characters we receive when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker arrives in theaters on December 20, 2019.