The Rise Of Skywalker Poster Pays Homage To Jaws

A new poster, for the final chapter of the Skywalker saga in Star Wars has been released.

It shows a sole x-wing fighter racing away from a fleet of star destroyers, on being most prominent on that poster. Now, turn that upside down and you practically have the classic Roger Kastel poster for Jaws, depicting the shark rising up to Chrissie Watkins.

Coincidence? Perhaps, unlikely though, especially as its director JJ Abrams is a huge fan and friend of Steven Spielberg. He’s practically the noughties version of him.

And of course, Abrams is a huge fan of Jaws. He’s been quoted as saying that Jaws was not really about a shark, but the story of a man, Chief Brody, dealing with his place in the world.

Perhaps that same assessment could describe Rey and Kylo Ren’s concluding story arc in The Rise of Skywalker.

Although Abrams and Spielberg go back further than you might imagine. Aged just 15, Abrams and Matt Reeves - friend and future director of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and The Batman - were invited to do some technical restoration of the director’s own home Super 8 footage. They may not have got to meet him, at that time, but it was still a hugely significant moment.

Spielberg and Tom Cruise asked him to pen the script to War of the Worlds back in 2005, but commitments to the first series of Lost meant he was unable to do so.

Spielberg did produce Abram’s Super 8 in 2011, which was essentially a love letter to the types of Spielberg films we all grew up watching, such as E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

In terms of box office, Jaws and Star Wars are brothers, as Jaws passed the box office champ baton over to George Lucas’ sci-fi epic in 1977.

Spielberg did it in style, taking out a full page advert in Variety to congratulate his friend George Lucas. It was a fitting conclusion as during the making of Jaws, Lucas and Spielberg checked out the model of Bruce. As a joke, Lucas out his head between the fake shark’s Jaws. Spielberg and John Milius - who helped contribute to the USS Indianapolis speech - closed the jaws and temporarily trapped Lucas.

It’s nice to see the world’s of Amity and Alderaan (well, not that there is anything left of it) colliding again.

By Dean Newman

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