Disney Said Yes To Rian Johnson’s New ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy With No Concrete Details

Does that make you more nervous, then?

Oh, yeah. I’ve never seen it with a real audience. The premiere is gonna be the first time I see it with a group bigger than 10, 15 people, which is terrifying but exciting. I don’t know, I’ve always hated the test screening process.  It’s always seemed torturous to me. It’s funny to be in a position where I would give my left arm to put this movie in front of 300 people in Nevada and just see if the jokes play. So, I guess we’ll find out on the night.

I’m guessing those small groups were trusted people though who would give you proper feedback?

[Yes,] first of all, it’s a big difference between 10 people and 300 people. And there’s a very big difference between 10 friends who are gonna be honest, who are gonna give you really good feedback but it’s never gonna be that kind of cruel. The cruel shoes of a real audience. But, I’ll tell you, I’m really proud of the movie, I feel really good about it. It’s just, you don’t know until you know.

Going from something the size of “Looper” to something on a much larger scale I can only guess you thought to yourself it’s gonna be the hardest thing you’ve ever done. Was that the case? Was it what you expected? Was it easier in a way?

Is it weird to say in a weird way it was easier? But it was kind of like when I got in the gig before I really started, it’s this big abstract monster, especially once “The Force Awakens” came out. That was like, “God, this is the biggest thing in the world.” It felt like the grownups had just made the real movie and now I was a little kid stepping into dad’s shoes and walking forward in the big oversized suit saying, “Now, what do we do?” So, it couldn’t be more scary. And then once you actually get into it and start doing the work, it’s making a movie, it’s telling a story, and inevitably it end up being easier than the scariest sounding thing in the world.

Going in you must have thought, “All right, this is Lucasfilm’s baby.  This is Disney. This is a huge property. There’s only so far they will let me go.” In reality did you feel like you had more creative freedom than you thought you would?

I had creative freedom with it, and that was something I hoped I would have coming into it. But the way that it played out, the extent to which I was not just allowed to find a story I cared about and follow that, but actively encouraged to find what was personal about it to me and pursue that? I think Kathy Kennedy and the other folks at Lucasfilm understood that the original films and prequels also were things that were really deeply personal for Lucas and that’s why they have that beating heart. They knew that a filmmaker coming in, like I know for me, they said, “You have to find what you care about in it and then you have to follow that.”

When you started writing it you knew where the first movie was gonna end. Did you know where the third movie was gonna begin?

No, not at all.

So, basically whoever was working on the third one needed to see what you were gonna do first before they even contemplated?

Well, J.J.[Abrams] is doing the third one now and he just started up just a few months ago. Yeah, absolutely.

Once Colin Trevorrow dropped out did you ever think about directing Episode 9?

No, it was never in the plan. I was just always gonna do this one and hand it off to whoever the next filmmaker was gonna be.

Would you want to? Or did you simply need a break?

No. I mean, I had such a good time working with all these guys, it would be a blast to work with them again. But, I guess my head was just in the space of, “That’s not the way this lays out. They’ll find whoever they find to do the next one. But, I’m stepping away after this chapter.”

Obviously, there is only so much you can talk about before the first public screening of “Last Jedi” on Saturday. That being said, is there one particular theme that resonates through the movie?

Well, theme is tricky because, it makes it sound like it’s a sermon or something. But there’s obviously some really strong themes that run through it. I mean, one thing that you can see even from just looking at the poster is there’s obviously [a] generational kind of theme. You know, one generation meeting another. And that was [also] in “The Force Awakens” that’s in this. I think the very nature of this trilogy, what it is. You know, the fact that there’s the new cast coming in and we’re bringing back the characters from the original, that’s inevitable. But then each character then also has their own thread that they’re following. Rey is very much on the quest for identity, her place in the world. She’s kind of the Luke Skywalker, she’s going through the Hero’s journey of this trilogy. And Finn also. Finn left the First Order, he never really joined the resistance, though  and he cares about his friends but he hasn’t really found what he is fighting for.  So, this movie is kind of about that for him. Every single one of them has a different thread they’re following. Hopefully they all weave into a big rope at the end, and it all makes sense.

Last year about this time was the premiere of “Rogue One.” Movies are always first received in the context of what’s going on in the world. I remember going to see it and the election had happened a month before, and here we had this really tough, gritty war movie in space. I was at the premiere and I think you were there, too, I guess.

Yeah.

When Princes Leia came out at the end of the film and she says,”Hope” there was this euphoric cheer from the audience and it just turned into this sort of moment that was more than the surprise of seeing a young Carrie . You wouldn’t have known this when you were making it, but in that context do you think that this film will resonate in certain ways to people because of the state of the world today?

Oh, 100%. I mean I think that these movies always do. But I think they do because they aren’t specifically political. Like you said, that moment about hope. Or the very fundamental stuff in the original trilogy about the good underdog fighting the evil. Or the big stuff in the prequels about how, if you’re acting out of fear of loss of something you think you possess, you’re gonna make bad choices in life. You know, the very fundamental stuff. Using fear as a leadership tool, stuff like that. It gets to the stuff underneath and that’s why it’s constantly applicable to the real world, I think. I hope this movie is no different.

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” opens nationwide on Dec. 15.