Rian Johnson Talks About His Relationship with Lucasfilm and Says His New STAR WARS Trilogy Will Involve The Force
If you haven’t been able to tell, Rian Johnson and the people over at Lucasfilm and Disney are becoming bros. The new Star Wars movies have been a little tough on their directors with Phil Lord and Chris Miller being separated from Solo, Colin Trevorrow getting kicked off Episode IX, huge rewrites to J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens, and reshooting roughly 40% of Gareth Edwards' Rogue One. However, we haven’t heard of any big squabbles with Johnson. In fact, Disney gave Johnson a whole new trilogy to work on after Star Wars: The Last Jedi. This is huge! There have been a number of reports talking about how well Johnson got along with Lucasfilm, but the man himself talked about his experience in a recent interview with io9 stating:
“From the very beginning I had a very good relationship with [Lucasfilm president] Kathy [Kennedy]. It was really collaborative and I felt very protected by her. And beyond the creative freedom I was given to find what the story was going to be, all the folks at Lucasfilm understood how personal the original films were for George Lucas...So [Lucasfilm] actively encouraged me, not allowed me, but actively pushed me to find what was personal about this story for me. To find a story that was personal and would mean something deeply to me. And they nurtured that and protected that. I think the fact we all knew the movie we were making and were excited about it from day one [meant] we had a great experience.”
This would explain why he then had the guts to pitch the idea of a new trilogy. I am quite hopeful for the new trilogy and am extremely excited to get away from the Skywalkers. When talking about how the new trilogy came about, the filmmaker said:
“I was the one who said, ‘The thing that’s interesting to me would be a new trilogy, one story told over three movies, on that big canvas of the Star Warsworld. But—go someplace new, meet some new folks, tell a new story,’ and they really responded to that,”
He went on to reveal that he's still in the process of figuring out what this trilogy will be:
“I haven’t figured it out yet. It’s a really good question... For me the exciting thing about the new trilogy is the notion of how wide open it is and the idea of what can we create.”
This December, we’ll get our biggest clue as to what Johnson’s new trilogy may have in store when The Last Jedi hits theaters. It may not reveal content, but it should tell us a lot about how the story will be told. Of course, one aspect we can expect is the Force as he admits, “the Force and people using the Force are a crucial part of what makes Star Wars for him.” Are you excited for The Last Jedi? What about this new trilogy?
Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theaters December 15, 2017.