The story isn’t perfect, the reanimated Leia is weird and the Emperor is a pantomime villain – but who cares when you’re skipping along at lightspeed?
![Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker fan review with spoilers: The thrill is tangible](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/7a100eda4fbe05bcac8e04537cb126655e34c378/661_10_2427_1457/master/2427.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctcmV2aWV3LTUucG5n&enable=upscale&s=4acb6d05f6e179b4f024f8e9ac10d957)
SPOILER ALERT: Film content revealed in this discussion, so proceed with caution
About 40 minutes into Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker there’s a little switcheroo where you think that Chewbacca has died. And I believed it. I mean, it’s the last of the sequel-trilogy, the last of this particular nine-film story arc, and important characters have died already. But Chewie? Could they really kill Chewie?
No, thank the Maker, they (by “they” we mean JJ Abrams, co-screenwriter Chris Terrio and Luscasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy) did not. In fact, it’s only one more scene (maybe two, keep in mind I was seeing white hot when I thought my Wookiee pal had bought it) until you see Chewbacca alive, and growling with such ferocity it blows the hair back on Domhnall Gleeson’s General Hux.