It used to just be that there were fans of Star Wars. Fans that agreed that the original three films were like the best movies ever made. Then the prequels came and those fans lost their ever-loving minds. It was a collective disappointment. These more recent films have seen fans a little more divided as to whether the fans enjoy them and like the way the story going. Director Rian Johnson took on the latest film in the franchise, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and is setting out to create a whole new line of stories in his untitled Star Wars trilogy that he has planned.
Johnson recently appeared on the debut episode of the podcast Creative Processing With Joseph Gordon-Levitt, where he opened up about going up against a devoted, vocal, and sometimes volatile fanbase, and how he had to think around that when making The Last Jedi. Here’s what he had to say about it:
“I think the instant you start thinking in terms of how do you not step outside of the bounds of what the original movies did, you’re not thinking the way the people who made the original movies did. They were with every movie, they were pushing it forward, with every movie they were stepping outside those bounds and pushing the characters into new, emotionally honest, but surprising places. That’s why those movies are great. That’s why they’re alive. If they had been looking at something that came before it and saying, ‘Oh, we better not do this because that is outside of this or that,’ it would’ve been different.”
Brilliant. It’s true. If he had stayed in his head about the whole thing, it would have been a disaster, and would have totally negated the spirit of the franchise. Johnson also commented on the making of the upcoming film in an interview with The Observer (via CB):
“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.”
I think his vision is exciting! There are so many places he can go in this universe, and we are going to get a fun and fresh take that keeps us in the world of Star Wars for years to come. Are you excited about Johnson’s upcoming trilogy?