Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson revealed J.J. Abrams was excited about the changes Rian Johnson made to Star Wars in The Last Jedi film.
Fans who did not like Johnson’s changes to classic characters like Luke Skywalker or Leia Organa won’t be pleased to see his Abrams’ reaction given he returns to the Star Wars franchise to direct the upcoming Episode IX whose working title is Black Diamond.
Johnson spoke with Cinema Blend and revealed his meeting with Abrams when he first pitched The Last Jedi.
He was into it. And I remember that I pitched him the story at the very beginning, and he had notes, but he wasn’t like, ‘Oh my God, what the hell are you doing?’ [Laughs] No, he was into it because I think he was into the storytelling. He’s a great storyteller himself and he saw the potential of each one of these beats. I think he saw it for what we were going for, which is not… we weren’t going for, ‘Let’s subvert a Star Wars movie.’ We were going for ‘Let’s make a great Star Wars movie that has things in it that will push the limits of what we can do.’…
He then described Abrams’ role in The Last Jedi.
He was really gracious, in just stepping back and giving us a blank slate to work with. The starting point was The Force Awakens script, which is quite a big, expansive, wonderful starting point. In that way, we are drawing directly from his work. But from that point forward it was a blank canvas.
Johnson’s words are interesting. He uses “blank slate” and “blank canvas” to describe his starting point with The Last Jedi. Does this mean Lucasfilm had absolutely no idea where they were actually going to go with these characters when they introduced them in The Force Awakens, or could it be referring to the idea that Abrams allowed Johnson to have creative control without producer or studio interference.
Johnson will truly have a blank slate when he launches his new Star Wars trilogy.
The Last Jedi is currently in theaters. It stars Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, Daisy Ridley as Rey, Andy Serkis as Supreme Leader Snoke, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa. and John Boyega as Finn.