J.J. Abrams promises 'emotional and meaningful' ending to Star Wars trilogy

J.J. Abrams has promised fans that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will be a "cohesive" ending to all nine Star Wars films.

The highly-anticipated movie will conclude the Skywalker saga, which began in 1977 with George Lucas' first instalment, Star Wars: A New Hope.

More than 40 years later, The Rise of Skywalker director Abrams has been tasked with bringing the new trilogy, as well as the nine-film franchise as a whole, to a satisfying conclusion, and he told Entertainment Weekly that it was a daunting task.

"Endings are the thing that scare me the most," he shared. "It also doesn't mean that there's a list of payoffs that we have to do because of setups. 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. We're not screwing around.

"This is about bringing this thing to a close in a way that is emotional and meaningful and also satisfying in terms of actually answering (as many) questions as possible. So if years from now, someone's watching these movies, all nine of them, they're watching a story that is as cohesive as possible."

Abrams also said he and co-writer Chris Terrio wanted to honour Lucas' original vision of the Star Wars saga being set over the course of nine films.

"While there were many things that were planned for and discussed - George Lucas himself said when he created this he saw it as three, three-act plays - that doesn't mean there isn't discovery, that doesn't mean there aren't things that come up that make you realise, 'Oh, here's an opportunity,'" he cryptically teased.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will be released in cinemas from 18 December.