Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues to do big business, but essentially serves to correct the damage done by the prequel trilogy. J.J. Abrams , under the watchful eye of Disney, achieved this by making the film a great ride with parallels to Episode IV: A New Hope. Do not under estimate the triumph of awakening the beloved Star Wars series from it’s prequel slumber and therefore setting the stage for Looper director Rian Johnson to do whatever he wants with episode 8. In fact with episode 9 as well because Johnson is writing both, but only directing episode 8. Episode 9 will be directed by Colin Trevorrow, fresh from his Jurassic World success.
Long-serving Star Wars screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, famous for his work on The Empire Strikes Back and now The Force Awakens, is very excited about this potential new direction. Speaking to LA Times he said: “These movies will all be so different, Rian Johnson is a friend of mine — he’s going to make some weird thing. If you’ve seen Rian’s work, you know it’s not going be like anything that’s ever been in Star Wars. You couldn’t have three more different people than J.J., Rian and Colin Trevorrow.”
Between the main episodes there will be a number of anthology films, starting with Death Star heist-action movie, Rogue One, and a Han Solo prequel movie. Kasdan went on to say “Those movies will have the Star Wars saga as their basis, but everything else will be different; then Phil Lord and Chris Miller are going to make the Han Solo film and I can’t guess what that will be like — and I’m writing it”.
I would recommend seeking out Johnson’s previous work including the time travelling and genre spanning thriller Looper, as “weird” is a good description. Personally I am excited about this potential new direction for Star Wars. Long may the force continue to awaken!
#Peace.Love.StarWars
