The Star Wars prequels still might not be considered “cool,” but they’re now held in higher regard than they were before The Force Awakens came out, if only because the animosity towards them seems further away and, more importantly, we have good Star Wars movies again. (Except for Attack of the Clones — that one’s forever not great, Bob.)
They were also an inspiration to Rian Johnson while he was writing The Last Jedi. At a recent IMAX Q&A event, he told the audience, “I watched the prequels a lot actually, and that goes for the writing and while we were in prep. I think partially because the original trilogy was the ones that I know by heart, shot for shot. The prequels, I knew them really well but I saw them less so I kind of wanted to steep myself in that visual language a lot more before I got into it.”
Johnson continued, “The notion of finding echoes, not just in the original trilogy but also in the prequel trilogy, felt like just a really rich well to draw from. So I kept the original trilogy and also the prequels just on my iPad that I had with me all the time and at night I would just put it on in a random spot and watch pieces of it.” There was one prequels scene that held particular importance to him.
When a fan asked what Kylo Ren was thinking when he saw the Millennium Falcon fly away after Luke Skywalker’s diversion tactic on Crait, Johnson replied, “I think that’s such a beautiful notion of ‘What does he regret in that moment?’ It’s the same way I think about in Revenge of the Sith, that mask is coming down, that beautiful shot of Anakin’s eyes right before it goes over and you see that glimpse of… Is it fear? Is it regret? What is it? What is going through his mind at that moment? That’s that kind of moment for Ben.”
I know what he was thinking.
(Via Comic Book)