On Sunday, at Star Wars Celebration Europe, Star Wars Episode VIII director Rian Johnson spoke a little about his upcoming films, and the things he's changing about the franchise. There are many things that have become Star Wars tradition over the last seven films, but at least one of them will see a major change when Episode VIII hits the screen. The new film will begin immediately after Star Wars: The Force Awakens ended.
On stage at the Future Filmmakers panel at Star Wars Celebration, director Rian Johnson took the opportunity to talk about his movie which just finished filming. The first item of note that he revealed, was the fact there will be zero downtime between Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: Episode VIII.
We are going to break a longstanding Star Wars tradition. This movie is going to start right where the last one left off.
Traditionally, the Star Wars films have years of time between each episode. The purpose of the opening text crawl is to explain what has happened in between. In this case, however, Rian Johnson explained that he had to start the movie at this climactic point because he wanted to know what happened in the moments following Rey and Luke Skywalker meeting for the first time on top of that mountain. This probably a good move, as we all want to know what happens too. Star Wars: The Force Awakens didn't end so much on a cliffhanger as it did prepped for a HALO jump.
There have been some pretty major events that have taken place between Star Wars movies. The entire Clone Wars happened off screen, until it was added as an animated series. Han Solo was frozen in carbonite for years before Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi began. Luke Skywalker is a whole new person at the beginning of that movie because of the time that's passed.
It was recently announced that one of the things that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story may do without is the traditional opening text crawl, but now we're really wondering why Star Wars: Episode VIII will have one. The text fills us in on the events that have taken place between films, but if literally nothing has happened between movies, then what is the text going to say?
If you're dying to know what Luke Skywalkers' first words to Rey are on top of that mountain, it sounds like we'll get an answer. There are other things that we can expect the movie won't be skipping over based on this. A multi-year jump would have likely meant fast forwarding Rey's training as a Jedi, but we'll probably see a great deal of that.
Do you think this change will have a major impact on Star Wars: Episode VIII? Let us know in the comments.
