Mark Alders, writing over at Jedi News, took the opportunity to sit down with the writer of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Marvel’s adaptation of The Last Jedi to discuss the comic and its move from screen to page.
JN: How and when were you approached about doing the comic adaptation of ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’?
GW: Well I was already a part of the Lucasfilm “family” by that point, and when Lucasfilm finds people they’re comfortable working with, that they feel “get” Star Wars the same way they do, and can trust to keep secrets (very important!) they’ll come back to you again. I had already done Rogue One and Rebels, and I’m friends with Rian, so it felt like a natural fit.
JN: Turning a movie into a comic book, and a lengthy one at that, must be a daunting prospect. How do you approach a project like this?
GW: Lucasfilm were very insistent that the comic not just be a straight replay of the movie in comics form, but that I try to find different ways to approach the existing material and to add new things that would give readers a different experience than the film itself, but without contradicting or changing anything fundamental to it. I can’t just decide that Kylo Ren or Rey or Luke would do or say or think something majorly different than they do in the film, but I can riff and build on what Rian already laid down. A lot of the stuff I’ve added or interpreted is really very minor but because it’s Star Wars even little things are a big deal so something as minor as giving Admiral Ackbar a final moment before he died (I’m a huge Ackbar fan!) was received in a major — and I’m glad to say very positive — way by the fans.
