‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ Director Rian Johnson says Film Explores Characters Deeper, Required Crew to Watch Old-Fashioned War Movies Before Shooting

‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ director Rian Johnson revealed that the upcoming film will explore the franchise’s new protagonists deeper. He also admitted that he required his crew to watch old-fashioned war films before they began production.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Johnson made an appearance at the three-day Star Wars Celebration in London to talk about what to expect in the upcoming installment in the ‘Star Wars’ space opera franchise. He explained that he would be breaking tradition by picking up directly where its predecessor left off. He said, “This movie is going to start right were the last one left off… That final scene in VII, I want to see what happens next.”

Johnson also teased that his film will attempt to explore the newly introduced protagonists from J. J. Abrams’ preceding film ‘Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens’ on a deeper level.

He said, “The first film was this incredible explosion of adventure and excitement that sets up these characters and then just out of necessity it’s very natural that in the second film that we start zooming in on the characters.” He said that he intends to get to the “heart” of the characters by “challenging them, and pushing them deeper.”

According to Fortune, Johnson’s new film is the follow-up to Abrams’ critically and commercially successful ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’, which introduced a host of new characters that will be the focus of the next installments in the franchise.

These included Daisy Ridley’s scavenger Rey, John Boyega’s reformed First Order stormtrooper Finn, and Oscar Isaac’s Resistance fighter pilot Poe Dameron. The film also included ‘Star Wars’ veteran actors Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa, and Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker.

Meanwhile, Johnson teased that his upcoming addition is inspired by old-fashioned war classics such as Henry King’s ‘Twelve O’Clock High’, George Stevens’ ‘Gunga Din’, Hideo Gosha’s ‘Three Outlaw Samurai’, David Lean’s ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’, and Zoltan Korda’s ‘Sahara’. According to the Guardian, the filmmaker required crew members to watch the films before they began principal photography.

‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ is an upcoming action-adventure and science-fiction film written and directed by Rian Johnson. It is produced by Ram Bergman and Kathleen Kennedy with J. J. Abrams, Tommy Harper, and Jason D. McGatlin executive producing. It is scheduled to premiere on December 15, 2017 in the United States.