The Rise of Skywalker is a different genre than its trilogy predecessors, says Daisy Ridley

Star Wars star Daisy Ridley has been on a recent teasing streak for The Rise of Skywalker, first telling fans that they could’ve learned the entire plot if they were simply at the right place at the right time when director J.J. Abrams explained it to her — loudly, in public. Now the actress is teasing something even more basic to the film than its plot: its genre. Star Wars’ genre is pretty straightforward. A space opera’s component parts are pulpy adventure given a sci-fi coat of paint. How could it change?

According to Ridley, it could change within the trilogy itself. Speaking to USA Today, Ridley explained that the end of the Skywalker saga was a departure from recent Star Wars films.  “Genre-wise, it’s different from the other two, which will become clear when the film comes out,” the actress said. “It's quite emotional. There's a different drive than the previous two films, but there's a lot of fun.”

Now it’s not like we expect The Rise of Skywalker to be a period piece or a teen sex romp or anything like that. But changing the genre away from the coming-of-age war-set adventures of the previous films into something more sprawling and team-oriented—“To me, it felt like kids going on an adventure,” Ridley explains — could really change how the movie feels.

Ridley also shot down speculation about Rey’s parentage (“you do know what the dealio is”) and mourned the one stunt she wasn’t fully able to pull off (the TIE Fighter backflip from the trailer), as well as expressing no surprise at some of The Last Jedi's online haters—but we’re still hung up on that question of genre. This sentiment seems to imply a change far deeper than tone. While the previous trilogies definitely got darker as they went along, their core genres all stayed the same.

What do you think the final Skywalker saga film will be like? The Rise of Skywalker will answer this question, closing out the Star Wars fans know and love, on Dec. 20.