One of the biggest questions many Star Wars fans have, specifically fans of the The Last Jedi, is whether or not J.J. Abrams is going to retcon much of what was done in the upcoming The Rise of Skywalker. That will surely be a topic of debate for years to come, long after the movie is released. That said, according to Abrams, director Rian Johnson's entry in a galaxy far, far away didn't derail any of the overarching plans.

For those that may need a quick little recap, J.J. Abrams successfully helmed The Force Awakens to great success. While the general feeling was that of excitement, some were a little soft on how closely the movie mirrored A New Hope. Rian Johnson took over on Episode VIII, which we now know as The Last Jedi. He took things in radical new directions and, while the vocal minority has been particularly hostile, it remains an incredibly divisive movie amongst the fanbase. Many absolutely adore it. Others don't.

With that, and with J.J. Abrams coming back on board to round out the trilogy, many have suspected he may retcon some things. Is he going to change Rey's parentage, for example? Some have taken Kylo Ren putting his helmet back together in the trailer as a signal of the retcons to come. In any event, during a recent interview, Abrams explained that The Last Jedi, in his mind, didn't affect the plans they started laying out for the finale back when The Force Awakens was being made. Here's what he had to say about it.

"The story that we're telling, the story that we started to conceive when we did The Force Awakens was allowed to continue. Episode VIII didn't really derail anything that we were thinking about. But I will say that the fun of this movie is that these characters are all together on this adventure as a group. That's the thing that I was most excited about. To see the dynamic between these characters that these amazing actors play on this desperate, seat-of-your-pants adventure."

This opens up a whole host of questions. If Rey's parents turn out to be more than junk traders, is it a retcon? Or just a development in the natural narrative? Again, this is all going to be picked apart and analyzed under a microscope later this year. But taking the filmmaker at his word, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will, more or less, be a version of what they had planned back in the early days of this new trilogy.

Fans, at this point, have many questions. How is Palpatine coming back? And why is he coming back? What's going on with Dark Rey (an answer StarWars.com seemingly answered then retracted if you look on the Internet hard enough and don't mind being spoiled)? And, perhaps most importantly, will this be able to deliver a satisfying conclusion to this nine-movie saga? A tall order, no doubt. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is set to hit theaters on December 20. This news comes to us via Entertainment Tonight Canada.