In an interview with Wired, The Force Awakens director confirmed that Rian Johnson’s script for Star Wars: Episode VIII is finished. “I’m sure rewrites are going to be endless, like they always are,” he cautions. “We had meetings with Rian and Ram Bergman, the producer of Episode VIII. They were watching dailies when we were shooting our movie. We wanted them to be part of the process, to make the transition to their film as seamless as possible. I showed Rian an early cut of the movie, because I knew he was doing his rewrite and prepping.”
What’s interesting is how Rian Johnson’s story appears to have also impacted The Force Awakens, as well. “Rian has asked for a couple of things here and there that he needs for his story,” Mr. Abrams said. “He is an incredibly accomplished filmmaker and an incredibly strong writer. So the story he told took what we were doing and went in the direction that he felt was best but that is very much in line with what we were thinking as well.”
Star Wars writer Lawrence Kasdan had a few things tos ay about Rian Johnson’s new movie to LA Times. He wants us to know that what Johnson is doing is very different from what we’ve seen before:
These movies will all be so different. [Episode VIII director] Rian Johnson is a friend of mine — he’s going to make some weird thing. If you’ve seen Rian’s work, you know it’s not going be like anything that’s ever been in Star Wars. You couldn’t have three more different people than J.J., Rian and Colin [Trevorrow, Episode IX director].
Meanwhile, J.J. Abrams told EW that we shouldn’t worry too much about the lack of backstories for some of the characters in The Force Awakens. Those backstories and revelations are being spread out through the rest of the films:
Everyone who has seen these movies thinks about ‘I am your father …’ and ‘There is another …’ But neither of those things were in [1977’s original] Star Wars. Star Wars didn’t say Luke was the son of Vader. Star Wars didn’t say Leia was the sister of Luke. You didn’t understand what these references were: the Empire, dark times, Clone Wars. There were these things that were discussed that don’t get explained. George [Lucas] dropped you into a story and respected you to infer everything necessary to understand what you need to know…Can this movie actually also hold, ‘And Rey is this … And Finn is that … And this is where Poe is from …’ This is the first of a series. There is a story to be told. And it will be.
Talking to Vogue, John Boyega, who is reprising his role as Finn in Episode VIII, revealed one or two major details about Rian Johnson’s upcoming installment. He said, “[The script is] great. Much darker, but we’re very excited…My part in the next film will be much more physical so I might be in the gym a bit more.”
Daisy Ridley, speaking with Variety, also showed support for Johnson’s script, saying, “It’s very good.”
