J.J. Abrams reveals A Rise of Skywalker script wound up on eBay before Disney snatched it back

As with any major blockbuster release, there has been a ton of secrecy surrounding Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. One might even say that it's been cloaked in more mystery than any other cinematic project in recent memory, as the Disney-produced film wraps up over 40 years of beloved space opera storytelling.

However, all of those secrets nearly came crashing down long before the project's Dec. 20 opening when a screenplay (co-written by director J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio) went up for sale on eBay. Abrams, who revealed that the movie was just finished yesterday, recounted the story during an appearance on Good Morning America earlier today.

"The security is insane. The company, they were really nervous about anything getting out. And so, they had only a handful of scripts and they were printed on crazy, uncopy-able paper," said the filmmaker of the production's overly cautious leak-preventative measures.

"And then one of our actors, I'm not gonna say which one — I want to, but I won't — left [a copy of the script] under their bed and it was found by someone who was cleaning their place," he continued. "It was given to someone else who then went to sell it on eBay and someone at the company said [to me,] 'You know, there's a script that looks like it's a legit script that's for sale on eBay.' And they got it back before it sold."

Despite the intense studio crackdown that is par for the course with these types of big budget releases, it's crazy, mind-boggling even, to think that the entire plot for The Rise of Skywalker was almost made available to the public.

With that said, any Star Wars fan out there should be breathing a major sigh of relief, glad that they get to organically learn the explanation for Palpatine's return and the reason for Rey's enigmatic Sith attire when the movie hits theaters next month. To that end, Abrams is extremely happy that members of the audience are analyzing every aspect of the footage seen in all of the trailers and promotional material released thus far.

"It's amazing how much people read into the small details," he said. "The key to doing a movie like this is you want to make sure the details have meaning and matter because you know that they're gonna be scrutinized like crazy."