The Rian Johnson Thread

Westchester Magazine - 'Star Wars' Director J.J. Abrams Returns to Westchester

http://www.westchestermagazine.com/JJ-Abrams-Sarah-Lawrence-Westchester-Commencement/ (May 15, 2017)

 

Rian Johnson: "I did an impromptu Vegas trip with a friend in my early 20s. We were broke and couldn't afford a hotel room, so our brilliant plan was to drive up after work on Friday, stay up all night, then drive back in the morning. Which we did. It was 115 degrees in the morning, and we were not in good shape. I think his car didn't have AC. We made it as far as Primm, then realized we would probably die if we kept driving. But now we were even more broke than the night before, so we could not even afford a room in Primm. So we parked in their open air parking structure and fell asleep in the car. I woke up a few hours later. The car was an oven. I was literally soaked in sweat and badly hung over. I had to pee, so I stumbled out and into the casino (Buffalo Bills I think) to find a bathroom. Because we were up in the parking structure it was a constant descent through level after level of the dank casino filled with horrifying hill people, plunging downward, as sick as I've ever felt. To this day, when the topic of hell is raised, that's what I imagine. Primm, Nevada. And a descent into the lower depths to the rotten candy chimes of nickle slots." (February 2010 - series of tweets)

I've read a lot of his tweets about gambling and casinos and Las Vegas.

 

Mark Hamill is the stand-up-est guy.

 

I will reiterate that Hamill is a fine actor but not the "creative" type lol

 

I just watched the trailers for Brick, Looper, and Brother Bloom - they all look REALLY good. i am going to watch those soon. I loved all the episodes of Breaking Bad, so I know he did a great job on those episodes. The "Fly" episode was one of the best.

I'll be back here after seeing those movies.

 

I've tried to watch Looper but I gave up after 30 mim of film. Same with JJ Abrams Super 8. I am inclined to asume that mediocre directors have an special talent to direct SW movies.
The only that disapointed me was GL with the prequels.
So I am almost sure that Rian will deliver to us a good movie. Not worried at all.

 

His movie is going to be great, I'm sure.

 

I watched Brick yesterday. I gave it 4 1/2 stars on Vudu. The writing is just shy of spectacular IMO, with the one demerit for a mid 2000's cellphone in an 80's period piece. But the story was fantastic. It was a rare case of almost nothing anticipated.

I thought direction was very, very good with the one downside of the actors having so many fast, important lines of dialogue being delivered with really bad mush-mouth. But overall I really, REALLY liked the movie.

On to Brothers Bloom now, then Looper probably next weekend.

 

My ability to "think outside the box" is what makes me a good systems integrator. Actually, if someone asks me about that, I tell them "my mind escaped the box a long time ago and it has no idea how to find it's way back."

After watching 2 of his movies, I think that describes Rian Johnson also. The guy definitely does not believe in boundaries. And that's a very good thing. The Brothers Bloom at times seemed to be set in the 19th century, at other times set in the mid 20th, and often in the present day. That should make for a ridiculously non-functional screenplay, but he made it work brilliantly. I am now so much more excited for TLJ. My fears of it being a stamped-out, plot-point copy of ESB is gone. That's not how RJ rolls. I think we will have a fresh, unique SW movie with plenty of unexpected plot twists. And of course you know the dialogue will be fantastic.

And I still have yet to see what most consider to be his defining masterpiece(so far, at least) - Looper.

 

There's some issues with Rian Johnson's past not aligning with the values of Star Wars (or this particular incarnation of Star Wars as set up in The Force Awakens). J. J. Abrams didn't have these problems before getting hired, he just brought with him into the The Force Awakens his mystery box problem.

1) Johnson's only made content for adults prior to The Last Jedi - nearly everything he's done is R-rated or MA-rated (Brothers Bloom is PG-13), but none of his content has been family or children-oriented.
2) He's only made men as the main character.
3) His main characters are not heroes.
4) His three biggest female characters are the mom in Looper, the manic pixie dream girl in Brothers Bloom, and the femme fatale in Brick.

He has to have put all of this aside in order to make a good Episode VIII in my judgment.

 

A very interesting discussion on twitter.

 

[QUOTES] Words From Production Members Before The Release Of The Force Awakens
[QUOTES] Words From Production Members After The Release Of The Force Awakens
[QUOTES] J. J. Abrams and the Original Trilogy Structure

Elaboration: This was the development of VIII according to the people involved.

Spoiler: wall of text

Kathleen Kennedy: “We know where we’re going, but only in the broadest sense.” “When Rian [Johnson] came in and started writing his script, he started from scratch, other than knowing what we had done in Episode VII and projecting out where it was going. He then sat down and put pen to paper, and it’s 100 percent him.” (August 12, 2015)

Kathleen Kennedy: “We haven’t mapped out every single detail yet [for the future episodes]. But obviously everybody’s talking to one other and working together […] that collaboration is going to guarantee that everybody’s got a say in how we move forward with this.” (December 7, 2015)

Kathleen Kennedy: “We already have [planted the seeds for future Star Wars episodes]. We’re three quarters of the way through the shooting of Rogue One, which will finish on the day this is released. And Rian started working on the script for Episode VIII a year and a half ago. So he’s been in prep for a year. And he starts shooting in January, the end of January. So we need to be working a couple of years out in front of, at least in terms of the script, in front of these start dates.” “No [J. J. Abrams didn’t do a treatment for future Star Wars episodes], because at that point we were sitting down and talking about where this might go, even as early on as with Michael Arndt. We were sort of plotting out, because obviously if you know up front that you’re building the pacing inside a trilogy structure, we needed to have some sense of where this saga was going without locking in on things and leaving room for creative development. But we had to have some sense of where we were going.” (December 17, 2015)

Kathleen Kennedy: “Yup [Rian Johnson came in and gave notes while The Force Awakens was in development.]” “Yes. We talked a little bit about [setting up plot points for VIII and seeding things], but we didn’t end up doing a great deal of that — but we did talk about that. And Rian did come in very early and he read, and came and visited the set. J.J. and him had a lot of conversations. I think Colin will end up doing more of that more-so with Rian as he develops Episode IX.” (December 17, 2015)

Kathleen Kennedy: “[Lucasfilm Story Group head] Kiri [Hart] has been very good about creating a narrative timeline, and having everybody involved in a certain narrative understand where it might fit. That’s become important to the way we talk about these stories.” “We look at Marvel, but we’re not trying to emulate that in any way. In fact, we talked often about how distinctive what we’re trying to do with Star Wars is from Marvel. They’ve been extremely successful in exploiting the characters in that universe, and we have a place. We have the galaxy.” “You can recognise when a film-maker really, really cares about what they’re doing. I felt that about Colin [Trevorrow]. Rian [Johnson]’s an unbelievably smart, fascinating film-maker, and he’s done a beautiful job on Episode VIII. He’s introduced some new things and new ideas. That’s what I want. That’s what is exciting about bringing in this new variety of talent – you always want to be surprised.” (December 12, 2016)

Kathleen Kennedy: “Part of it is Rian Johnson [to push the series forward in new directions]; I love his talent [and] his commitment to these stories, and his understanding of the mythology that George [Lucas] created. It’s really something that I think you’ll see that he takes these characters [and] develops their complexities. He’s not afraid to try things that move this into a more complex universe, and I think that’s great. I think that’s what [Star Wars] needs.” “I certainly foresee movies past nine. Whether or not we carry on the Skywalker saga… you know, George always intended nine movies, and whether we continue that or not is something we’re talking about right now. If the story warrants it, we’ll absolutely do it. If it actually inspires new ideas, then we’ll probably head in that direction. We just don’t know yet.” (April 14, 2017)

J. J. Abrams: “It’s a thrill to see [Rian Johnson] take things and elevate them beyond what we had imagined at the time.” “I’m still editing and we’re working on refining the cut, but it’s incredibly fun to see the movie come together. You go through, and you realize certain things that you don’t need, certain things that you can pull out.” “I will let you know when we get there [to completion].” (August 12, 2015)

J. J. Abrams: “I can’t imagine how many fans have told their own versions of these stories. We were constantly saying ‘Oh, this could be great for VIII’ or ‘This would be so much fun to do now but we have to wait until IX for that’. We talked a lot about what might have happened.” (Empire magazine – October 2015)

J. J. Abrams: “I do feel like there’s a little bit more of a burden on Larry and me to come up with a story that could at least be the beginning of what transpires over three films.” “Yes [a TV pilot is like the first movie in a new cycle of movies], although in fairness a pilot obviously doesn’t require a finale that gives you a sense of satisfaction, because you’re telling the audience to tune in next week. With a movie, you have to give at least some kind of satisfying conclusion.” (November 2015)

J. J. Abrams: “The script for VIII is written. I’m sure rewrites are going to be endless, like they always are. But what Larry and I did was set up certain key relationships, certain key questions, conflicts. And we knew where certain things were going. We had meetings with Rian and Ram Bergman, the producer of VIII. They were watching dailies when we were shooting our movie. We wanted them to be part of the process, to make the transition to their film as seamless as possible. I showed Rian an early cut of the movie, because I knew he was doing his rewrite and prepping. And as executive producer of VIII, I need that movie to be really good. Withholding serves no one and certainly not the fans. So we’ve been as transparent as possible. Rian has asked for a couple of things here and there that he needs for his story. He is an incredibly accomplished filmmaker and an incredibly strong writer. So the story he told took what we were doing and went in the direction that he felt was best but that is very much in line with what we were thinking as well. But you’re right—that will be his movie; he’s going to do it in the way he sees fit. He’s neither asking for nor does he need me to oversee the process.” (November 2015)

J. J. Abrams: “We didn’t write a treatment [for the next episodes] but there are countless times we came up with something and said ‘oh, this would be so great for Episode VIII!’ or ‘That’s what we could get to in IX!’ It was just that kind of forward moving story. But we knew this had to neither be a backwards moving nostalgic trip only nor a beginning of a movie without a satisfying conclusion, and that was part of the balancing act — embracing what we have inherited and using that where and whenever possible to tell a story that hasn’t been seen yet. We also knew that certain things were inevitable in our minds but that didn’t mean it would be inevitable for whoever came in next. When Rian [Johnson], who I admire enormously and adore, came on board, we met and talked with him about all the things we were working on and playing with, and he as a spectacular writer and director has taken those things and has written an amazing script that I think will be an incredible next chapter, some of which incorporating things we were thinking of and other things are things we could never of dreamed of.” “There were a handful of things we talked about that were going to be helpful to him. Some were very easy to do, and some things were things that I didn’t want to do for other reasons, but I tried to be as accommodating as I could. And its so cool to see what happens next in a way that only someone as talented as Rian could do.” (December 15, 2015)

J. J. Abrams: “We were definitely, we had a movie that was gonna go into production, we had a movie that we had to write and so we kept having ideas [where] we thought, ‘this would be a really great thing to do in VIII,’ or ‘that could be really cool’ or ‘this is where this could go in IX.’ And we’d sort of sketch out on the periphery these ideas knowing our job was not to outline VIII and IX. Our job was to write VII. So we had very specific ideas but we spent our focus, our time that we had on obviously writing the script that we were going to be shooting. And then when [Rian] Johnson was brought on board we talked to him about all the ideas that we had and all the things we were working on and he pitched ideas [of] where he was taking the story in some places that were very much in line with what we were thinking and in other places going and telling a story that was very different from what we were thinking but was incredibly exciting to see where he was going. And it was…he’s so great. So it wasn’t like we were dealing with someone who needed our help but it was great to see the way he took what we had started and where he’s gone and I think it’s going to be pretty exciting.” (December 17, 2015)

J. J. Abrams: “There were things that we – at the very beginning of the process – were outlining and discovering and we just knew would be in ‘Episode 8’ or ‘9’. A couple of those were things I was so excited about getting to do, but realised early on that there was no way we could shove them into ‘Episode 7’. Then of course Rian Johnson came along and is incorporating some of these things very closely to what we were thinking about – and in other cases things that we would never have imagined.” “The ideas that we had about what preceded and what might follow [‘The Force Awakens’] were fairly enormous. We had to talk quite a bit about how we got here, about where we might go. That’s what ‘Episode 4’, the first ‘Star Wars’ movie did so brilliantly. It felt like it had this lived in world that excited and was going somewhere extraordinary.” (December 18, 2015)

J. J. Abrams: “Well, when Lawrence Kasdan and I were working on the story, we had a sense of where we thought things would go. So of course there a number of things we use and set up. And it’s wonderful to see how Rian Johnson has taken our story. Of course we had meetings and stuff beforehand, but he’s taken it and really made it his own and continued the story his way. But there are, of course, many things in this film that are very clearly part of a continuum.” (SFX magazine January 2016)

J. J. Abrams: “Larry and I had a bunch of thoughts of where certain things could go and we shared those things with Rian Johnson, who’s directing VIII. He had things that he came up with where he asked if it was possible if we could make some adjustments with what we were doing at the end, most of which we did — there were just a couple that didn’t feel right, so he made adjustments — but it was just collaboration. We’re all fans and friends and supporters of each other, and there’s been no one cheerleading and supporting louder and more consistently than Rian on this, and I feel that I am grateful that I now get to take that position for him.” (January 8, 2016)

J. J. Abrams: “I know quite a bit [about Rey’s lineage].” “Obviously it’s not for me to talk about in this moment because this is Rian’s story to continue now. The last thing I’m going to do is reveal something that he would be upset about. I want to make sure that Rian gets the courtesy that he showed me.” (January 12, 2016)

J. J. Abrams: “[The Force Awakens] was a bridge and a kind of reminder; the audience needed to be reminded what Star Wars is, but it needed to be established with something familiar, with a sense of where we are going to new lands, which is very much what 8 and 9 do.” (April 15, 2016)

J. J. Abrams: “As a producer on any project you try to do whatever’s necessary of you. In some cases that’s getting out of the way, in other cases it’s helping with casting, editorial, or reshoots. It depends on what is being demanded, what fires need to be put out, what help you can be. I think the key as a producer is to be additive and to help the project and the people directing it or producing it realize their vision as best as possible. I’ve been very lucky to work with people, like, in the case of The Last Jedi, Ryan Johnson, who is a filmmaker who doesn’t need a babysitter. He needs to be given the room and the space to do what he wants to do. We collaborated really well from the moment he came on, but this is his moment to tell his story. You want to hire people who can do the job so you don’t have to do their job. And in the case of Ryan, Kathy Kennedy brought him on to direct and write The Last Jedi because she knew he was a fully capable filmmaker, and he’s proven to be that once again.” (May 15, 2017)

Lawrence Kasdan: “We asked ourselves what might have happened to [the original trilogy cast] during that time? How much had they changed? We wanted new characters who will be interesting to you not just for one movie, but for three. Who have the potential to fit into this galaxy and yet be something different than we’ve ever seen. We’ve been very lucky with the casting there because those are three extraordinary actors. And then there’s Adam Driver… He’ll be different from anything that’s ever been in Star Wars.” (Empire magazine October 2015)

Lawrence Kasdan: “We didn’t [plan the next episodes]. We should have, but we didn’t.” “What we thought was it was a big enough job to wind up with something we really like.” “It fulfilled those desires to get back to a certain spirit.” “Nothing is settled at the end of this movie, so that suggests ‘Episode VIII’ and ‘IX.’ But we did not say we had to lay that out. That’s someone else’s job.” “[Director] JJ Abrams and [Producer Kathleen Kennedy], they were very cognizant of that link. They wanted whatever I could help to give them.” “JJ is amazingly open and receptive. He loves the first trilogy and this link to the first trilogy was a good thing for him.” “It was very comfortable to write about characters who learn the same thing I did, which is the world is complicated.” (December 16, 2015)

Lawrence Kasdan: (31:31) “We’re hoping, you know, that Rian Johnson can figure [Rey’s backstory and the state of the galaxy] out.” [audience laughter] “We were really stymied.” (December 20, 2015)

Lawrence Kasdan: “Well you want [the movie] to be open-ended. We definitely wanted it to be open-ended but we didn’t want to dictate where it was going. These movies – and people underestimate this but all six of these movies that preceded this – now the seventh – are determined by the directors who do them, so A New Hope has George’s buoyancy, his feeling that there would never be another Star Wars, he has his rebellion against Hollywood and his love for those things, the pulp and the Flash Gordon and the Kurosawa – everything that had influenced him up to then. And then when he miraculously was enabled with his own money to make The Empire Strikes Back he made the most important decision ever in all the saga I think when said my teacher from the USC Irvin Kershner who had never done anything like A New Hope but had made New York art films […] these were art films from the east coast and George brilliantly said that’s the flavor that I want for The Empire Strikes Back. And it changed everything – not just the revelation of Darth [Vader] being the father but the tone of everything changed from then on. And that’s when I came into it and I thought this is so much more interesting – and I love A New Hope – but this makes it more than A New Hope. So, each director defines the movie and Rian Johnson who will do the next episode will change it enormously.” (December 21, 2015)

Lawrence Kasdan: “[J .J. Abrams and I have] not really [sketched out the next episodes]. [The Force Awakens] sets up a lot of stuff. There’s a lot of people to deal with. And Rian took on that job and he’s going to change it, because he’s Rian. And I’m sure Colin will change what Rian does…. 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.” “We talked about [the ending of the new trilogy] — and there’s a certain thing that people who are involved with it feel should happen. There’s a kind of movement that happens. But it’s not in your control. It’s going to veer off with Rian, and it’s going to veer off another way with Colin.” (December 22, 2015)

Michael Arndt: (31:31) [audience laughter] “We were just, ‘Screw it. Let Rian figure [Rey’s backstory and the state of the galaxy] out.’ Yeah.” (December 20, 2015)

Rian Johnson: “For me, personally, I grew up not just watching those movies but playing with those toys. So growing up, the first movies I was making in my head were set in [the Star Wars] world.” “Honestly, [writing Episode VIII]’s the most fun I’ve ever had writing, it’s just joyous.” “[Kathleen Kennedy] and her whole creative team have been so insistent on all the filmmakers they’ve been hiring for these new movies. [They say,] ‘We want you to take it, and turn it into something that you really care about’. “We’ll see how the process plays out, but so far, that’s a big part of the reason I’m in it, because that just seems like their attitude towards it. It’s really exciting, actually.” (September 20, 2014)

Rian Johnson: “I did [start Episode VIII while VII was in production], yeah. They were still shooting actually here in London. They were still shooting Episode VII and so, yeah, I was still thinking about that today because obviously Colin [Trevorrow] is doing the same thing while we were in production with Episode VIII. He was starting to think about IX. And I know it was kind of strange like because we – one of the first things I did was went up to San Francisco and spent about six weeks kind of figuring out the story and I would go in a few times a week and sit down with these guys [Kathleen Kennedy, Kiri Hart, and Pablo Hidalgo] and with the [Lucasfilm] Story Group and just hash it through. We would watch dailies that were coming in from VII and at that point it was just the script and kind of the dailies that we were seeing. I was thinking about that – it was probably really healthy that in thinking about where the story goes next, it was entirely just based on our reactions to it as opposed to based on the phenomenon that it would become or the cultural reaction to it. It was just a very personal, ‘what do we connect with about with these characters and where do they go next?'” (Star Wars Celebration 2016 London)

Rian Johnson: “I was constantly evolving [Episode VIII] as 7 came together.” (August 13, 2016)

Rian Johnson: “What has been so wonderful about Kathy is there was a real creative freedom from the start. She gave me a script for The Force Awakens and then sat down and said, ‘So what happens next?’ That was the last thing I was expecting.” (December 12, 2016)

Rian Johnson: “Yes … The big [favor] was, I asked [J.J. Abrams] if R2 could come with Rey, and if BB-8 could stay behind with the Resistance. Originally it was BB-8 who went with Rey, which makes sense for the story in a way. But I asked, ‘Can you do me this solid and switch the droids?’” “Figuring out where [Luke’s] head was at was the very first thing I had to do when writing the movie. I had to crack this. And it had to be something for me that first and foremost made sense. Why did Luke Skywalker go off to this island? That was the starting point, and that’s what the entire movie explores.” “I didn’t want it to [be that Luke is a coward]. There has to be a good reason that makes sense to him — and to some degree makes sense to us.” (May 4, 2017)

Rian Johnson: "Nope [the story for TLJ was not pre-planned]." (May 28, 2017) "I’m sure they talked about where it might go early on, but when they came to me there was no mapped story presented beyond TFA." (May 28, 2017)

Colin Trevorrow: “A story must evolve or perish, and Rian [Johnson] and I are working closely together to make sure our stories build off of each other and continue to evolve and take us to new places, and I think that’s what the fans expect and what they want.” (January 11, 2016)

Kiri Hart: “The whole [Lucasfilm Story Group] team reads each draft of the screenplay as it evolves and we try, as much as we can, to smooth out anything that isn’t connecting.” “[We do not impose plot-point mandates on the filmmakers.]” (May 24, 2017)

Pablo Hidalgo: “It’s interesting because when the idea of Journey to The Force Awakens first floated – like we knew it as a concept before it got ever really concrete in terms of deciding how many books and what they would be about – but, we knew that this was an area that the publishing was going to go into so together with the [Lucasfilm] Story Group led by Kiri Hart – once the storyline for The Force Awakens really solidified we had this…an offsite meeting, we spent the whole day mapping out conceptually what happens in the 30 years between Episode VI and Episode V…I mean, Episode VII. And a lot of that was informed by ideas and notes that George Lucas left us, some world-building that Michael Arndt did early on in developing the script for VII, and some ideas that Rian Johnson wanted to explore going into VIII. So, we took all this together and started loosely mapping out. And the further we got out from [Return of the] Jedi – the looser we got in order to allow ourselves maximum creative flexibility. The closer we got to VII the more concrete we got. So the clearest picture of what this universe looks like right now is leading into VII and leading out of VI. And since we knew Journey [to the Force Awakens] would be coming out [announced on StarWars.com on March 10, 2015] in anticipation of VII, it’s like let’s explore that time frame. So all this produced a document that I wrote describing the state of the universe up to – and we all kind of picked this seismic event called the Battle of Jakku. And so a lot of these stories are floating around this event and we’re going to continue telling that story. And we knew that it was going to be told in print as well as our friends at DICE and EA developing Battlefront. We knew that could be a great place for them to explore as well. So it’s essentially just building this roadmap that we knew would be able to service all these different formats [and] different media.” (October 10, 2015)

Pablo Hidalgo: “A lot of that stuff [such as Han Solo the racing pilot] came out of… as Episode VII really… as The Force Awakens really took shape and we understood where these characters were gonna be – at a story retreat outside the Lucasfilm Story Group. We figured out, okay, we now know what the endpoint is for VII, and we know where we left off in VI, so let’s start mapping the trajectory of these characters’ lives in broad strokes so we understand where they’ve been and what they’ve been up to. And that development of Han in answering the question, “what does a retired peacetime Han look like?” knowing that he’s gonna end up back in the scoundrel form that we know and recognize from the original trilogy – but it’s like, it’s not like he’s been doing that for 30 years. So what does peacetime Han look like? What would he get into? We kind of came to this idea and it’s an idea that’s gonna surface in other storytelling that takes place in between VI and VII. Stuff like that we’ll be able to mine more fully than just a throwaway line in the Visual Dictionary.” (February 19, 2016)

 

Agreed I'm expecting that too.

 

While I hope (and slightly believe) that Rian Johnson makes a great movie, in the end and as a parent who has the opportunity to enjoy new Star Wars movies with my kids-as long as my kids and I can enjoy it together I'll be on cloud 9! And if I love it all by myself, well that's not too bad either!

 

Reading the "pearl-clutching" comments across social media, this is the distinct impression i'm getting

Internet: *OMG the sequel trilogy is a rehash of the OT. There's nothing new *

Rian: "Actually there's no overall plan, we get to create new story"

Internet: OMG THESE HACKS ARE MAKING IT UP AS THEY GO ALONG

 

Impressive, most impressive
Thank you for sharing it.
p.s. but do you think about it?

 

Mark Hamill: "[Does The Last Jedi have similarities to The Empire Strikes Back?] Well the middle act of a three act play - or an opera - that's where everything goes wrong for the protagonists. And I thought it was so refreshing in [The] Empire [Strikes Back] we were thoroughly defeated, I lose a hand, the revelation of Darth Vader's relationship to me, it was so unexpected and plus it was I thought a deeper, more cerebral film with Yoda which who I loved that addition, it made it I think a more challenging experience for the audience rather than just retreading the euphoria of the first one." "Yes [The Last Jedi is a more challenging experience for the audience]. [Johnson] has more leeway to really mess things up - it's Colin Trevorrow that's gonna have to tie all the loose ends together." (April 14, 2017)

David Kamp, Vanity Fair magazine: "Biggest surprise to me is how much creative leeway Lucasfilm is giving Rian Johnson and Colin Trevorrow to write their films and make up plot and characters from scratch. I had presumed (wrongly) that JJ Abrams and Larry Kasdan might have sketched out an arc for the entirety of the current trilogy. But as Rian Johnson told me, it really was a creative handoff—'Over to you, Rian.' And Rian is handing off to Colin Trevorrow in the same way. He said he’s made a mess that Colin will somehow have to clean up." (May 25, 2017)