Director Rian Johnson on What He Wants From STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII and How He's Handling the Characters
Star Wars: Episode VIII director Rian Johnson recently sat down with USA Today to talk about his highly anticipated film project. As a fan of Johnson's previous film work, I'm excited and curious to see how he handles the Star Wars franchise. During the interview, the director talked about what he wants from the film and how he approached handling its characters.
“I want it to be a blast and to be funny and to be a ride the way The Force Awakens and the original Star Wars movies were."
I have no doubt that it will be. We recently learned that the film's main focus will be Luke Skywalker and that we'll learn more about the character and his unknown past in this movie. The director also talked about Rey, Finn, and Poe, and how he wanted to explore their characters more, explaining:
“I wanted to know more about each of them, and that doesn’t just mean information or backstory, Figure out what’s the most difficult thing each of them could be challenged with now — let’s throw that at them and dig into what really makes them tick by seeing how they handle that."
When it comes to Luke Skywalker, who will be one of the most important characters in this next film, Johnson said that he's "approaching it with a take that I hope feels honest and real and is going to be interesting to folks and make sense.”
Luke is the most exciting part about this whole thing for me! I'm so excited to see his story explored in this movie! Johnson has always been a great storyteller, so I trust that he'll do the character justice in this movie. We know that Rey is going to form a strong connection with Luke in the story, and when talking about where we last saw the two characters in The Force Awakens he said that neither of them know "what’s going to happen and also having a lot of expectations in her head about how this is going to go.” He also said, “It very much feels like what we all go through in adolescence, the dawning of this new chapter of our lives."
Obviously one of the big questions on everyone's mind is Rey's parentage. This is something that Rey is also asking herself, and it ties into the dawning the new chapter in her life. Johnson said it's "a huge part of especially Rey’s character, something that was a really powerful part of her setup and something I really wanted to dig into with this."
Johnson revealed that there is a solid title for the film, and that it's something he has known since he started working on the film. Of course, he didn't reveal it. All he said was, "All in good time."
This is a dream project for Johnson, and he said, “The creative work has felt like play." He continued, "It’s felt resonant and meaningful because it meant so much to me as a kid." I'm sure all of the Star Wars fans out there can relate to that, which is why we all hope that Johnson gives us the best Star Wars film possible.
Star Wars: Episode VIII will be released on December 15, 2017. As we get closer to that date, we'll start to learn more and more information! Exciting times are ahead!