Speaking with Empire magazine on the cusp of his Knives Out sequel Glass Onion arriving on Netflix, Rian Johnson looks back half a decade to another sequel of his, The Last Jedi, a film which continues to generate strong opinions and one Johnson feels more proud of now than when the film hit cinemas in December of 2017.
“I’m even more proud of it five years on. When I was up at bat, I really swung at the ball.”
“I think it’s impossible for any of us to approach Star Wars without thinking about it as a myth that we were raised with, and how that myth, that story, baked itself into us and affected us. The ultimate intent was not to strip away – the intent was to get to the basic, fundamental power of myth. And ultimately I hope the film is an affirmation of the power of the myth of Star Wars in our lives.”
“The final images of the movie, to me, are not deconstructing the myth of Luke Skywalker, they’re building it, and they’re him embracing it. They’re him absolutely defying the notion of, ‘Throw away the past,’ and embracing what actually matters about his myth and what’s going to inspire the next generation. So for me, the process of stripping away is always in the interest of getting to something essential that really matters.”
Star Wars: Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Ultimate Guide by Titan Books published by Titan Comics @ ForbiddenPlanet.com – UK and Worldwide Cult Entertainment Megastore