New Details on STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS and Rian Johnson's EPISODE VIII
It's looking like today is going to be a big news day for Star Wars! Earlier today we reported that no new footage of Star Wars: The Force Awakens would be shown at Disney's D23 Expo, and then all of a sudden we got a bunch of cool new photos to share with you! Now we have some additional details on the film that come from interviews with the talented crew bringing this movie to life.
Thanks to EW we have some new information on the story of the film and the characters who are a part of it. First up, J.J. Abrams once again talks about his hesitation to take the directing job:
“You rarely get a chance to be involved in something that you would typically be an audience for. Katie, my wife, said, ‘If you want to do this and you don’t, you’re going to regret this.’ It was really about being willing to take that leap, and jump into the possibilities of what these characters are doing, and where they are.”
Then screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan threw in his two cents on why he decided to come back and work on the franchise again. Sounds like it wasn't an easy task, but it does give you some insight on how he approached the project:
“I thought, ‘Wow, okay, these people have lived — they’re in a different place in their lives, Han and Leia and so on. They’ve lived the same 30 years I have. What would that be like? How would you see things differently?’ And I was trying to figure out how I saw things differently, and one of the surprises is that you don’t learn all that much. You haven’t become much wiser than you were, and things are not clearer to you, and the world is just as confusing as it always was — and that’s a kind of lovely thing to get to write about again. Age does not necessarily bring wisdom; it just brings experience.”
As for the little bits of details that the magazine has to offer on the film, they say that the Empire "has morphed into a junta known as The First Order, while X-Wing pilots like Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron now fly for a splinter group known as the Resistance." Then there's Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), who is now in possession of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader's original lightsaber, which was believed to be lost when (SPOILER) Vader cut Luke's (Mark Hamill) hand off during their climactic duel in The Empire Strikes Back. Just so you're not confused, this was the lightsaber given to Luke by Obi-Wan Kenobi.
As far as Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren goes, he is referred as being a “Darth Vader obsessive,” and Domhnall Gleeson's General Hux, who is part of The First Order, is described as being "merciless." The report goes on to talk about Luke:
"There’s no question, the Luke we watched staring off at the twin suns of Tatooine in the original Star Wars is not the same Luke we last saw standing in the shadows of Endor while his victorious friends celebrated the fall of the Emperor, the death of Darth Vader, and the destruction of the second Death Star. War distorts any soul, and getting older always comes with compromises. Each one takes a piece of you — parts that can’t be replaced like a cybernetic hand."
You think you know Luke? Think again — they hint that the changes we see in him could alter the way audiences look at the original trilogy, as well as the arc planned for the upcoming universe. Kathleen Kennedy said,
“The themes and ideas that we all continue to talk about are the themes and ideas that were the inherent in the original movies. We’re looking, obviously, for aspiration, for characters who are conflicted between good and evil, dark and light.”
When talking about trying to get Abrams on board for the film Kennedy revealed, “In the context of talking about story and laying out what we were thinking, I said one thing to him, ‘Who is Luke Skywalker?’” Abrams' almost immediate response was, “Oh my God, I just got the chills. I’m in.”
Abrams went on to talk about the future of the saga beyond The Force Awakens and the work Rian Johnson is doing for Episode VIII:
“It’s a thrill to see [Johnson] take things and elevate them beyond what we had imagined at the time.”
Kennedy also talked about what Johnson is doing and revealed that he started from scratch on the project:
“We know where we’re going, but only in the broadest sense. When Rian came in and started writing his script, he started from scratch, other than knowing what we had done in Episode VII and projecting out where it was going. He then sat down and put pen to paper, and it’s 100 percent him.”
That's so great to hear! I love Johnson's writting and directing style, and it's going to be so cool to see how exactly it translates to a Star Wars film. There's no word on who will direct Episode IX yet, but Abrams made it clear that it's not going to be him:
“No, I’m not going to direct Episode IX, as much as I am deeply envious of anyone who gets to work with this group of people on the future movies.”
EW has a very long and great interview which I suggest you read when you get a chance. There's a lot of cool stuff coming in the Star Wars universe, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Lucasfilm actually has in store for their D23 presentation this weekend. We'll be there to report on anything cool that they reveal!
Star Wars: The Force Awakens will debut in theaters on December 18th, 2015.