ST Rian Johnson to write and direct Episode VIII (and also new SW Trilogy - see page 194)

Incredible. This guy is dope!

 

I'm with you there. Here's to hoping we don't see a fall from grace in epic proportions.

 

what a great guy, seriously.

 

nvm

 

Rian will be so hyped right now. It's about to be his turn in the Star Wars limelight. It's his year.
We're either going to be raving with enthusiasm, or the entire Internet is going to be flaming him with hate.

 

However the film turns out, I think the trailer is going to be jaw-dropping. They've been working carefully on this thing for a long time.

 

The guy has been working on this film for 3-4 years and I'm pretty confident that TLJ will define the next 40 years of SW.

The whole panel will feel like "Babe Ruth's called shot".

The home run will be the teaser/trailer/collection of moving images.

 

Either way I appreciate Johnson's enthusiasm and respect he's demonstrated to the fans and the brand.

 

I bring balance to this now:

The movie will be trash!

 

I don't see the movie being bad. Rian is very talented, at worse it plays it too close to Empire Strikes Back just like Abrams did with TFA/ANH. Outside of that, I just can't picture him putting out a bad Star Wars. This world is prime for a director and writer like Rian.

 

I don't think it'll riff on ESB to anywhere near the extent that TFA riffs on ANH (which is really just on a surface level anyway).

 

Nothing but for Rian for doing this. Fans are ecstatic and he took so many selfies with them. What a way to show how much he cares! Those brave souls in the queue really needed it. Well done!

 

My thoughts exactly. The actual characterizations of TFA were quite unique, just look at the character KYLO. Vader wasnt even much of a character in ANH. It's just some vague beats that are the same.

 

Maybe it's just me, but I don't remember KK (and Hamill) gushing over J.J the way they did over Rian today. I was taken aback a little bit.

 

I agree. I think the praise is genuine. And I also don't think RJ is nervous now - he seems very, very proud of the film he is putting together.

 

This is an incredibly long, but very, very good essay that amongst other things discusses who Rian Johnson is as a person and how that reflects in the quality and humanity of his work.

http://ew.com/article/2012/09/26/looper-rian-johnson-film-crit-hulk/

 

It really does sound like RJ is a major force behind the entire ST.

 

Satipo People always praise each other at these events, but I was struck by the extent of it with Rian. KK said that he is on his way to becoming one of the greatest ever and Hamill called him a god (!). The nicest things I remember them saying about J.J was that he is a true fan and listens to advice.

 

Exactly. You can praise, but you don't have to go above and beyond that way. I do think they liked JJ - but this feels more. I also think it's telling that Mark felt able to say (in a separate interview) that he initially disagreed with RJ on his choices for Luke - but once he went along with his vision, most of his fears disappeared. I think he trusted him, and he now appreciates what RJ was going for.

 

after seeing how Rian handled the fans at celebration meeting everyone who was spending the night, and how honestly grateful he seems to be there, and got all shy when Kathleen was praising him and watching the trailer I'm so excited he's doing this film

 

Without trying to sound mean towards JJ Abrams or Colin Trevorrow, I think it's a safe bet that us Star Wars fans are gonna miss Rian big time once The Last Jedi is out and we've moved on to the Episode IX production cycle. We're being spoiled right now in so many ways.

 

https://twitter.com/GMA/status/853004555423973376

 

He's got "something" going in this movie. He's moving the story and the surrounding ideas along.
I suspect there will be plenty diehard "I have a headcanon and you better be filming it" people who will hate this.

 

Going from disagreeing with someone to calling them a god is a pretty radical change. Whatever Rian did to convince him must have been really special.

 

Not surprised at all about this.

Yuuuup. I think this film has a VERY strong chance of topping Empire as the top SW film, but I bet it's going to divide a ton of fans when it first comes out.

I'm so stoked to find out for myself.