Rian Johnson, the writer/director of Brick and Looper, as well as a director of some great Breaking Bad episodes, is going to be writing and directing Star Wars: Episode VIII and writing Episode IX. We’ve already seen a bit of the opening scene of Episode VIII and have been hearing hints about the tone from the actors, with John Boyega (Finn) saying it’s “much darker” and Adam Driver (Cry-lo Ren) saying Johnson is a “different temperature” than J.J. Abrams.
Lawrence Kasdan (co-writer of The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and The Force Awakens) told Hero Complex last year that Johnson is “going to make some weird thing” that won’t be like “anything that’s ever been in Star Wars.” Now Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron) is agreeing with Kasdan in a new interview.
Isaac — who saved his character from a terrible fate with the power of offhand complaints and (perhaps) sweet dance moves — also spoke to Hero Complex this week about Rian Johnson’s unique take on the Star Wars universe.
“Rian is definitely going to places and investigating things that haven’t really been done in the Star Wars universe. For me, it’s so fun getting to explore different things that I wouldn’t have expected in this universe. In some ways it feels like we’re making an independent film. Certain things we get to play with — this kind of intimacy that we get to find — it’s special. It’s been really fun.”
If Oscar Isaac is surprised by something in a Star Wars film, it must be new. This is a guy so into Star Wars he attended all of the prequels in cosplay, including a gonk droid costume. The mental image of the future Poe Dameron attending the prequels as a gonk droid is just mesmerizing. I could stay here all day talking about it, making diagrams with straws.
Anyway, we probably won’t find out exactly what new things to expect in Episode VIII anytime soon. The only scene that’s been spoiled so far is that epic sea battle:
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Star Wars: Episode VIII: Jedi Fights a Dog on a Canoe opens December 15, 2017.
(Via Hero Complex)
