Star Wars: The Last Jedi – 10 Revelations From Director Rian Johnson
1. Luke and Kylo's views are built to mirror each other
2. Luke's death had to have resonance
"He's taken himself out of the fight, he's sitting on that island in exile. I know the Luke I grew up with is not a coward, he's not sitting out there hiding, so I had to come up with a reason he was there that was active and positive, and something I could genuinely believe I could think in his shoes."
3. The stable boy ending almost wasn't the last scene
"it turns what Luke did from an act that saves 20 people into an act that inspires the galaxy. The notion that what we're setting up here is something big in the next chapter. And when Leia says, 'we have everything we need,' she's talking about everyone on the Falcon, but also about what we see next, which is we now have a galaxy that has seen this beacon of hope and is getting inspired to fight the good fight."
4. Kylo and Rey's connection is complicated for a reason
5. Rey's parentage was a clear choice
"I went through all the possibilities of who her parents could be. I made a list, with the upsides and downsides. There were two things about this option that made it feel right to me. Firstly. I like the idea that we're breaking out from the notion that the force is this genetic thing that you have to be tied to somebody to have. It's the 'anybody can be president' idea."
6. Carrie Fisher's death did not affect the story
7. Holdo's hyperspace attack reaches back to a line from the past
"I'm sure that a lot of fans had thought ever since Han was talking about if you don't get the calculations right you could go through a star...,"
8. Snoke's unceremonious death allowed for a new paradigm
"This is not Snoke's story."
9. Luke and co.'s expanded Force powers had to compete with what we've seen before
"I feel like we still offered a modicum of restraint, because we didn't have anyone pulling Star Destroyers out of the sky. And believe me, it came up when Luke came out on to the field, I was, like, 'should he wave his hand and all the walkers blow off like dust?' The things that are in there that are Force moments largely came out of the dramatic moments.
(OMG - CONSPIRACY THEORY ALERT) But the Leia thing is an interesting example. It's something that Kathy kept bringing up, which I thought was interesting. She said, 'I've always been intrigued by what Luke says to Leia in Jedi in that she has the power inside her also, and why haven't we seen that?'
10. Johnson had to resist being a fanboy around Adrian Edmondson
