#fandom waaaaaaaaaank

[oldadastra]

All in Good Time: Rian Johnson, The Last Jedi, and creative freedom

A deep-seated fear in the Star Wars fandom is that the filmmakers are working without a plan; that they are making things up as they go along, or that they don’t know what they are doing. I understand the origins of this fear; I’m an old fan of the original trilogy who experienced the truth “from a certain point of view,” in the theater.

Rian Johnson’s recent comments regarding the freedom with which he approached the creation of The Last Jedi have fanned these fears to a level of hysteria that’s both exhausting and foolish. Some perspective is in order.

Public announcement of Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm was made on October 30, 2012. 

Take a look at this quote in the article, from Bob Iger, then the Disney CEO:

“Mr. Iger said Disney acquired a detailed treatment for the next three “Star Wars” films as part of the acquisition.”

In an interview published THE VERY NEXT DAY, October 31, 2012, Rian Johnson discussed his newly-released feature film, “Looper.” At the end of the story, interviewer Brad Brevet asked Johnson what he was working on next:

And with that I have to ask what’s coming up next for you. Do you have any plans, are you directing any more episodes of “Breaking Bad”? Do you have a movie in mind? What’s going on?

“I’m writing right now. I’m trying to dig into this next idea that I’ve got and I’m still in the relatively early phases, but I’m moving ahead with it.”

Can you give me an idea of what kind of genre are you working in for your next film?

“It is, actually, still kind of in the sci-fi world, but it’s very different from Looper though. But it’s a type of sci-fi.”

Children, he’s talking about Episode Eight. Rian Johnson was already beginning work on what would become The Last Jedi before the official announcement of the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney.

Yes, there is an overall plan.

Yes, Rian Johnson has had creative freedom to tell his own story.

These ideas are not mutually exclusive. For those of us who follow the development of these stories at a fine-grained and obsessive level, there’s a danger in focusing on minutiae to the point we lose sight of the big picture. Disney did not spend four billion dollars on the Star Wars franchise to start making movies without a plan in place. Please stop saying they did. It makes you look foolish. 

This is not to say that the storytellers’ plans have not changed. I’ve no doubt that Carrie Fisher’s untimely death forced the creators of the new saga to change their plans, and that the way in which Episode IX unfolds will be different than it would have been had Fisher been around to play the important role that was hers. Even so, the big arc of the saga is likely to be what it was always intended to be. Why? Because there is a PLAN. There has always been a plan. 

I’ve explored some of my own questions about the evolving story, and the ways in which the hand-off from one director to the next may manifest themselves in what I’ve called the “shifting terrain” of canonical material, and how the story may be told in the wake of Carrie’s passing.  If you’re interested, you can find some of that material here and here.

In the meantime, take a deep breath, step away from the screen, and enjoy life. Rian Johnson is an amazing writer, a brilliant director, and loves Star Wars; he’s going to tell a great story.  The Last Jedi is coming in December, and chances are, it’s going to be awesome. Talented people have been working on it for YEARS.