Rian Johnson Opens Up About the Challenge of Crafting his New Star Wars Trilogy
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Phil Roberts 
The visionary filmmaker talks about the challenge of crafting a Star Wars universe without its legacy characters
Ahead of the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Lucasfilm decided to give Rian Johnson free reign over the galaxy far, far away and tasked him with crafting an entirely new trilogy of movies set in a corner of the galaxy previously unexplored in Star Wars lore. Fast forward to its release, and the fans were left divided by his take on the Skywalker saga leading to a section calling for his removal from the project. However, Lucasfilm held firm and Johnson is focussing his attention on the challenge of bringing his vision to the screen without the saga’s beloved legacy characters.
Johnson recently sat down with The Observer and opened up about the challenge of crafting a new Star Wars sandbox to play in:
“I think that the fun and challenging part of it is to dive in, figure out what’s exciting and then figure out what it’s going to be. We’re doing something that steps beyond the legacy characters. What does that look like? To me, the blue-sky element of it is what was most striking about it. I know the way that I’m coming at it and what’s fun about it for everyone in George Lucas’ films is figuring out, “what’s the next step?” It really makes you think and figure out what the essence of Star Wars is for me and what that will look like moving forward.”
As divisive as The Last Jedi was, the idea of exploring an entirely new section of the Star Wars universe is an exciting prospect and is more than enough to entice us into cinema auditoriums around the world. Whether Johnson can win the fans over remains to be seen, however, before we set our chronometers for the galaxy far, far away, Rian Johnson’s next project is the contemporary whodunnit Knives Out. The murder mystery thriller boasts an all-star cast which includes Daniel Craig, Chris Evans and Jamie Lee Curtis. Compared to The Last Jedi, Knives Out is an entirely different animal, and Johnson has this to say about the movie:
“Well, you have to shoot a lot faster. For me, one of the fun things about Knives Out was how dialogue-based it was. It was really fun to get a group of great actors together and give them a ton of words. In a Star Wars movie, you’re usually trying to be as efficient with dialogue as possible, which is a good thing. Of course, I worked with some of the best actors on the planet in Star Wars. You’re just chasing a very different rabbit. With Knives Out, you could write more words and just sit back with a huge smile on my face as they shoot them.”
Knives Out attempt to make a killing at the box office on November 27th, but if you can’t wait to return to the galaxy far, far away Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker culminates the saga on December 20th.
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Phil Roberts is the Owner, Daily Content Manager and Editor of Future of the Force. He is passionate about Star Wars, Batman, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, King Kong, and the Ray Harryhausen movies. Follow him on Twitter @philthecool where he uses the force frequently!
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Source: The Observer
Phil Roberts is the owner, daily content manager, and editor-in-chief of The Future of the Force. He is a huge fan of Star Wars, Batman, DC, Marvel, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, King Kong, and the Ray Harryhausen movies.
If he’s not in the cinema he’s probably streaming something equally awesome!
