Rian Johnson on why he took risks with Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

It's probably safe to say that the audience reaction towards STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI was a little more divisive than any of the previous films, with some calling THE LAST JEDI the greatest installment of the franchise and others completely swearing off the series by the time the credits rolled. Some of the character choices which Rian Johnson made in the sequel certainly rubbed some fans the wrong way, but the writer/director defended those choices while speaking on Joseph Gordon-Levitt's new podcast.

Rian Johnson was the first guest on Creative Processing with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and a great deal of the conversation dealt with inspiration and originality. As his previous films were original creations, Johnson was faced with something of a different challenge when presented with the eighth installment of a nine-film saga. Obviously, there are certain expectations when it comes to STAR WARS, but Johnson wasn't about to use that as an excuse not to present something original, which is how he views all the other movies in the franchise. "To me, the original films, and the prequels, are spectacularly original at every turn, and delight you in where it goes," Johnson said. It's in the spirit of the originality of those movies which prompted Johnson to continue pushing forward.

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.

As I touched upon before, there's a bit of a schism amongst fans at just how successful he was in that regard. However, Johnson is obviously eager to continue playing in the STAR WARS sandbox for a few more years as Lucasfilm has given him free rein to craft an entirely new STAR WARS trilogy which will be separate from the Skywalker saga and introduce "new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored." It's this freedom which has Johnson quite excited about moving forward.

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.

The conclusion of the nine-film saga will arrive when STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER hits theaters on December 20, 2019.