RJ Trilogy The Rian Johnson Trilogy

Some people in the media articles have said, he wants to make as iconic as the original classic trilogy. If his trilogy does happen, can he pull it off?

 

Some have said that it's cancelled. Is it true ?

 

What does your heart tell you?

 

Some Youtubers were saying that due to the backlash of fanbase toward TLJ and Solo it's been cancelled but I'm not sure to believe that.

 

I don't think so. He could make a series that grosses as much possibly, or that is awesome in general-but I wouldn't believe it could achieve "iconic" status. As with every franchise, there's never anything quite like the ORIGINAL. Some can come close, but they're just...not quite...the same.

Social media clickbait fluff. Haters' wishful thinking, that's what that is.

Until something is announced by LFL, it's all just rumors and assumptions...They've said they are reworking their plans abit, but they haven't addressed anything about RJ's new series-or any other specific productions for films, for that matter. They haven't said ANYTHING, really...and the lack of information is mind numbing!

 

I wouldn't listen to such comments at all. They have no idea what they are talking about and just throw stuff out their to have a topic or headline. These people have no idea what Johnson or Lucasfilm are planning to do. They aren't connected to production, and since right know any development would be at a state where hardly anyone is involved, they couldn't possibly have any sources who could inform them either.

Not to mention that "making it as iconic as the OT" is pretty much an empty statement, devoid of any meaning. How does one accomplish such a thing? It's not really something you could properly define. That being said, even if you could, doing something as iconic as the original with the Nth installment of a franchise would be rather surprising.

 

It hasn't been cancelled, however RJ is rumoured to be having doubts and could walk away. This is very much up in the air and will be until LFL makes a strong statement of intent, which they seem to be unwilling to do at this time. Why would RJ be willing to do this when the last time he received such an amount of abuse on social media and criticism from half the fanbase? I could see him walk away, move onto other projects where he doesn't have the baggage from TLJ dragging him down.

Personally I find it disappointing if we didn't at least hear where RJ wanted to go and the rough outline of his plot, it was rumoured that he wanted to explore the early days of a Jedi - Sith war, I can't think of a better subject for him.

 

Rumoured by whom?
There is no one that can be taken seriously who would have any knowledge about something like that. Rian Johnson himself certainly hasn't given any reason to make anyone think that he plans to walk away. On the contrary, he has acknowledged multiple times that the project is still moving forward.

There is no reason for Lucasfilm to make a strong statement of intent, which in turn also means that they aren't unwilling to make such a statement. You can't just go from a specific point of view without thinking of the possibility that the person or company sees things in a completely different light. They already announced this trilogy, to them there doesn't seem to be any doubt about it, so why should they make any statement? The only ones who are after a statement are those who have doubts themselves, or those who don't want to see this trilogy ever happening, so they make up claims that aren't supported by anything. You can't judge their behaviour based on your (general you) own ideas, you have to judge them by their own point of view.

This project is still years away, and things are far from set. As is the case for the Benioff & Weiss project. Why should they give even the tiniest hint at the plot or general storyline, when they are unlikely to have made final decisions on them? Way too many things can change from the early stages of development to make any statement about what might happen in the story. It wouldn't be wise to talk about early developments when things might move into a completely different direction later on.

 

Calm down, no need to get all worked up about something that might or might not happen...

I was referring to if it wasn't made i'd like to know what might've been!!!

 

I’ll give you a “strong statement of intent.” A press release where they announced the darned thing.

https://www.starwars.com/news/rian-...last-jedi-to-create-all-new-star-wars-trilogy

 

Fair enough but you're going back to 17th November 2017, four weeks before the franchise fanbase was split down the middle, a whole lot of things have happened since the balmy days of November 2017.

 

Good god, Youtubers saying its been cancelled. Good grief.

 

Personally I have nothing against RJ, but TLJ is an disaster in my opinion and after all the Backlash i just can't see him doing another Movie or whatever

 

Oh, well, in that case the YouTube video-making people are probably right. I mean, they make videos. That’s more sophisticated than posting a press release. So they must be right.

 

Star Wars fans were "split down the middle" long before December 2017. I think a more accurate date would be May 19th, 1999 at midnight.

 

nah they split in 1980 lol. But yeah it's happening and i can't wait. This trilogy might be the most force influenced Force trilogy to happen in quite a time. the others will be force yess, but more like the wars and politics in old republic.

 

Hey, that photo of me was supposed to go to my Cat Wars facebook group page only, how the heck did you find it?

Based on his perception of the Force, I would actually bet that RJ's prospective films will feature minimal use of The Force, if any at all. I could see him making an artsy indie style film about the lives of the slaves on Canto Bight more than I could see him show anything else. And I doubt he will want to show any Jedi or Sith. I don't think he likes the Jedi and the Sith as a plot element in Star Wars movies, and I assume he would want to move as far away from that as possible.

 

I don't need to calm down, because I'm already perfectly calm anyway.

The only thing I said, was that they don't have anything to tell because things are in early development. Something that should have been pretty obvious. No idea what made you answer with such a useless post.

Do you mind sharing what gave you that impression? Because I would have said the exact opposite. He was the first one to tackle finer details of the force in a very long time.

I wouldn't want to speculate on what he wants or doesn't want to do, but I haven't really seen anything that suggests there is something specific he doesn't care about or doesn't want to work with.

Seeing how this is supposed to be an entire trilogy, and how the slaves on Canto Bight were nothing but a tiny plot detail that enhances the story of Finn and Rose, I very much doubt that they will aim for "artsy indie style". That's not something you spend an entire trilogy on.

 

I don't see any finer details of The Force anywhere in TLJ. Yoda's "lessons" to Mark Hamill are literally the same lessons we had seen before, just with different words. Leia's Mary Poppins scene leaves more questions that it gives answers, it's so weird. Every Luke Skywalker & Rey interaction is almost completely devoid of The Force, with the exception of one Rey moment. Even when they fight each other, they fight like two ordinary people would fight. The throne room scene has cool moments (exclusively whatever Snoke does), but ultimately, there's nothing we haven't seen before. The only "new Force thing" that we see is the Force projection scene.

I guess what I mean is that RJ showed to me that he did not care at all about the mythology of The Force, its origins, its metaphysical aspects, the will of The Force as a plot device, and even for lightsaber fights. He wanted everyone and everything to be different and alternative. That is not the finer details of The Force for me.

He wasted the opportunity to give us new information about The Force that could be found on the ancient Jedi scriptures, he wasted the opportunity to show us a super wise Luke Skywalker, with vast knowledge and understanding of The Force, and he led the movie to its title.... The Last Jedi. I don't see how in his forthcoming movies he would go back to things that were very important to Lucas about The Force. As I said, I think that he would like to make a trilogy of films that would be focused on more small scale interactions between people in the GFFA, perhaps even far into the future, or far in the past. That's my opinion.

PS. I didn't seriously suggest that he would make three movies about Canto Bight. That was a hyperbole to show that I don't think he cares much about portraying the Jedi and the Force.

 

I think Rian gave us some new of the force, he connected two main characters trough the force, Luke gave a little wisdom of it when giving Rey her lessons. Life and death and trough it all their's a balance, and the force dosen't blelong to the jedi and if they died out it woden't be end of the galaxy. Also in a deleted scene he says to Rey that a true Jedi dosen't just run to saving a town all the time when he knows it will happen again when he's not there. Luke also gives us little recap of the prequels and his legends status. We know now that you can shut down the force from you, and when you open yourself to it again it comes back strong with emotions. Luke's force projection is from a legends book of the force and it's the most jedi action you can make. Also on Ach-to we see a painting of a ying yang prime jedi, it's kinda similar to mortis painting in cw. So there's force and some jedi lore behind it.

 

Mhm, lets see, we got multiple new concepts, plus additional ones that dealt with ideas that came up in the old EU as well. Things like a force-bond, or the ability to project yourself elsewhere, including the possibility of using the force in a way that excedes the boundaries of your own body. Then there is the general concept of the Jedi, and whether the lightside required them to exist, or whether the force will find another vessel to make sure that the darkside gets a counter-weight.

He didn't waste the opportunity at all. What could the Jedi scriptures include that would give everyone a totally new perspective?
They have been around for ages, Yoda knew them as well, so they were very much part of what the Jedi were like. They were more sort of a MacGuffin then actually something that was supposed to tell the audience anything. A book rarely gets used to show things that characters can show on their own.
I also don't see how all the scenes between Rey and Luke were devoid of the force. Very much the opposite was the case. They basically were about the force every single time. That was the entire point. Most of what came up directly lines up with what Lucas told about force. Well, apart from the balance maybe, but that's already something that Abrams brought up in this way in TFA, Luke clearly held vast knowledge and understanding of the force, else he wouldn't have been able to pull off what he pulled off. This is hardly the first time the "wise old master" refrains from using the majority of his skill or knowledge until or unless it is absolutely necessary.

How exactly did he "not care about the mythology of the force"?
Be specific, give exact examples of what constitutes not caring about it. Because so far you haven't given anything beyond "I don't think he cared about it", which generally seems to be coded language for "I didn't like it, therefore he was lazy / doesn't know anything / whatever". He obviously cared about it, else it wouldn't have played such a big role in the movie. Conceptual dealings with the force was one of the core elements of the movie.

I didn't say that you did. I was pointing out that they wouldn't bother making an entire trilogy about "artsy indie stuff", and that there isn't really anything that would make me think Johnson would be into that either. Not that your examples would work anyway, because the young slave kid played this role because of the force, not because Johnson secretly didn't care about it and would have preferred to tell something completely different.

 

If anything TLJ probably limited what RJ could do with the force, just simply because the movie only had a few characters for him to work with, Luke, Rey, Snoke, and Kylo.

I kind of get the impression that given new characters in a new setting he may really go all out with force concepts, for better or for worse. I overall enjoyed TLJ, though I could see RJ taking the force and making it far to complicated. Similar to the mortis clone wars episodes which I didn’t really care for.

 

The idea of a Force bond loses weight in Johnson's movie, mostly because it exists as a plot device to lure Rey into a trap. The bond as described in the film was pretty much "Mind Trick 2.0", basically using it to telepathically deceive Rey into believing Kylo would turn good if she came to help him, so Snoke could draw Luke out and kill him. The idea of the bond being the source of her skill came out later as errata. The idea that she has to leech off of the villain in order to gain skill is something that I find to be rather condescending, and aggravating, since it takes away from a chance for Rey to have a unique approach to the Force. She's literally Kylo, but good. She uses his fighting style and copies his Force techniques, but gets nothing for herself that's unique that she can use as a surprise to her foes or the audience.

The books certainly should have been more than just a macguffin, especially at this stage in SW history. The Jedi way of life is almost totally dead. Any understanding or history of who these people were as individuals or as an organization is pretty much scoured from the Galaxy, save as half truths and mythological legends that aren't really close to the reality of what the Jedi were and what the Force is. Those books, dating back to the first era of the new canon, could have and should have contained radical implications for the Force and been a major part of its resurgence into Galactic affairs, including ideas of how Jedi should interact with the universe around them, while staying true to their core tenants of defending Peace and Justice through Knowledge and Defense. Considering that the EU is now considered void, this movie should have taken a lot of time to discuss the Force as more than 'a tension between lifeforms'. Discussing the Will of the Force, why it was still out of balance even after Palpatine's death, what the real concept of balance actually is, or maybe even more radically- that the idea of a perfectly balance Force is impossible, because once living beings start interacting with it, the Force automatically falls into flux, are bold ideas that require us to go beyond the simple conflict of Sith vs Jedi and into the ramifications of the Force's place on the universe as a whole, not just a select few individuals. What we have instead is that apparently the Force will just cough up a powerful lightsider to deal with darkside threats whenever they show up. For all the beef midichlorians got from the Phantom Menace, at least they didn't just reduce the role of Jedi to the white blood cells that fight the darkside virus. Becoming a Jedi was riddled with hard choices, required commitment, learning to confront and master one's fears and gain inner balance to promote outer harmony to fully defeat evil, but not anymore. Don't worry about evil, the Force will just make someone to deal with it.

Finally, looking at Luke's role in the movie, I still can't understand how people are trying to stand behind him as 'wise mentor'. Luke showed in every scene he was in, that he had forsaken the hard won wisdom from the previous trilogy. He's allowed himself to be smothered under despair as a man completely broken by one attempt at trying to get the Jedi going again. An attempt that wasn't even his own idea. Leia had to beg him to train Ben and he only took on students after agreeing. Who these students were, what their abilities were, what their personalities were, could have given us lots of unique individual perspectives on the Force and what the role of the Jedi could have been. But they don't matter except as either dead bodies, or as traitors to Ben's cause, and even the traitors get 0 focus. It's all about Ben. Luke allows fear to drive him away from the Galaxy and his family. And on Achto, allows that fear to turn into anger and a hate for the Jedi and the Force, that causes him to sever himself from everything he believes in. He will not teach again. He will not act. He's just going to sit around, be angry and wait for old age to kill him. Even going to the temple serves no point, because he never even bothers to try and decipher the Jedi knowledge hidden there. Knowledge older than Yoda himself! The girl who should have been his student essentially has to self train via cheat codes, but this training is never shown to be difficult. It's just a day of her following Luke around and listening to him complain, followed by a day of lightsaber katas against a rock and then she's ready to go find Ben, confront Snoke and beat his legion of Jedi Killers, who may or may not be the Knights of Ren, but who cares? And even with her extremely minimalist training, she gets away with a scratch on the arm. From the 2 most powerful darksiders in current times and a squad of Jedi Killers. That's just bad storytelling. Luke does nothing in this movie to earn the praise that he's being given. He threw away his hopes and dreams and potential, just like the kid in ESB or ANH would have done at the first sign of trouble. Even his idea of a fix really achieves nothing. His confrontation with Ben lacks weight, because the dialogue is all very passive aggressive and the film ends by implying that Kylo is just going to be worse, but now he's Rey's problem, not Luke's.

RJ's element, isn't really the Force. His previous filmography has greater leanings towards the Galactic underworld. Films like Brick, the Brothers Bloom and Looper are mostly heist/modern noir pieces dealing with the shadier side of life, with hardboiled types. Guys like DJ, Maz or Han. Whatever kinds of films he makes, are likely to focus on those kinds of themes, because that's his real wheelhouse as a film maker.

 

Just had a nice and really long answer to that, including some paragraphs about the things you grossly distort about the movie, but then I realized that this isn't the ST-board but the RJ trilogy topic, and I don't want to bring it off-topic, that's something other people are apparently here for.

Say's who?
Again, nothing but an assumption. You have zero idea what Rian Johnson's elements are. His past filmography couldn't be less relevant for that. For one, it isn't particularly long to begin with, and secondly, just because someone did something doesn't mean he will forever stay true to that concept and never approach things differently.

There is nothing that gives anyone the knowledge what Rian Johnson would do with an entire trilogy of Star Wars movies, absolutely nothing. For all we know, he could just as well do the very opposite of what he has done with his non-SW movies, simply because this is a nice chance to do so. His one SW-movie certainly dealt a ton with the force.