Adam Driver Talks About The Differences Between His STAR WARS Directors

This article is almost certainly going to be a part of the earliest wave of Star Wars coverage that centers on the differences between The Force Awakens writer/director J.J. Abrams and Episode VIII writer/director Rian Johnson. Entertainment Weekly spoke with Adam Driver, who played the unhinged Kylo Ren in TFA and reprises the role in the upcoming sequel and asked him to compare the two filmmakers:

“Their temperaments are different. I feel like there was so many moving pieces in the first one – just trying to solve it and set the vocabulary for what it was. There’s a lot of that anxiety is gone, because people have developed a language. I think it’s more of a testament to Rian coming into something very established and making it [his own]. I can’t wait to get on set, just because he’s so unassuming and intelligent and approachable. The script they’ve come up with is really great.”

I'm sure over the next couple of years, cast members Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Oscar Isaac are going to be asked to make their own comparisons between the two directors, so strap in for another round a few months from now. In the meantime, I'm even more excited about Johnson tackling this new adventure as I was when he was first cast, because as Driver indicates, a lot of the nitty gritty aspects of getting this massive franchise off the ground again are already taken care of. Abrams did a remarkable job with The Force Awakens and left Johnson with a perfect set-up for moving that story forward, and I can't wait to see what he does with it.

Star Wars: Episode VIII hits theaters on December 15, 2017.