‘Rise of Skywalker’ Epilepsy Warning Is a Big Deal. What Parents Need to Know

If you or your kid was a little rattled by that strobing fight scene in Incredibles 2 or even some of the flashing lights in the Bill Burr episode of The Mandalorian, then you might want to rethink hitting up Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on opening weekend. The film carries a warning that the flashing lights could trigger epileptic seizures. And now that we’ve seen it, we can’t overstate this enough: Some of the flashier scenes are early in the film and absolutely NUTS.

Without getting into spoilers, the film has a fairly intense scene in what you could call its prologue. This scene isn’t long per se, but it is indicative of the overall feeling of the movie.

The warning was issued two weeks ago, and parents of children with epilepsy should not shrug it off. Now, sensory-free screenings are available for the movie, but as parents know, autism is not epilepsy. So again, if you’re going to see the new Star Wars movie, just make sure you know what your kid is comfortable with.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is out everywhere on Friday, December 20, 2019.