Star Wars Episode VIII has a title

We have the greatest fans in this or any other galaxy. In appreciation of the fans, we wanted them to be the first to know the title of the next chapter in the Skywalker saga: STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI.

THE LAST JEDI is written and directed by Rian Johnson and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman and executive produced by J.J. Abrams, Jason McGatlin, and Tom Karnowski.

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI is scheduled for release December 15, 2017.

Source

Thoughts?

Want to see it. Too bad it doesn't come out till December.

"THE LAST JEDI is written and directed by Rian Johnson". I don't know about this. A lot seems to be riding on this fairly untested guy. Where as Force Awaken and Rogue One were directed and written by significantly more experienced veterans in the industry.

What makes Gareth Edwards a "significantly more experienced veteran" than Johnson? Maybe I'm unfamiliar with his work, but from a quick search of his past material, the only significant films he made before being given Rogue One were Godzilla and Monsters, along with a handful of directing credits for TV. Johnson hasn't made too many films himself but his latest, Looper, received widespread acclaim (much moreso than anything Edwards has done) and is well known for directing a few episodes of Breaking Bad.

I'm sure Disney signed off on the script after making sure it was up to par. It is weird though when I look at his IMDB page why they would give him the directors chair. Only three movies to his name, and 4 episodes of tv. Looper is the only thing I've seen of his which was really good to be fair. They must have seen something decent about him.

All of his films are good to great, and his episodes of Breaking Bad were among the very best in the whole series which is a huge accomplishment.

Whatever the quality, he's a hell of a lot more adventurous and less of a fanboy than J.J. Abrams that's for sure, so in any case it should at least one of the series' more interesting outings if nothing else.

True but he's not both the writer AND director.

IMO Looper didn't strike me as some outstanding example of good directing or writing but to each his own I guess.

Ok it has a name now.

I agree Looper was not a fantastic movie, BUT, it showed he can do and understands fairly complicated or complex sci-fi narratives and themes. Its pretty easy to screw up a movie like that and instead he did a very good job of it. I can definitely how he's what they'd want, someone who could take some direction while also implementing his own ideas and artistic view.

In fact i'd actually put him in the category of young directors who you see a lot of promise in and are only waiting for that one writer to come along that he gels with, and they make a masterpiece. Hopefully this is it.

Off topic, but related to what i just said. Mickey Keating is in the same boat IMO. He is a horror director, young, who has done POD, Carnage Park and Darling. If this guy is paired with the right director, they are going to churn out some amazing movies.

Yes, no doubt he's talented but the man is still a fairly risky choice for BOTH writing and directing chair especially for something as big as a numbered SW movie. Granted I'm sure you throw enough money into the casting, production, post production, etc you can compensate for great amount of writing/directing shortcomings, especially for something so established.

Is Rian Johnson the only writer? I thought Lawrence Kasdan was supposed to be co writing this one as well. I guess he did Co write force awakens, and is slated to write the han solo movie. Thought for sure he was on episode 8, too.

I'm just surprise there's no leaks as to when is the trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi gonna pop up cause even then, The Force Awaken had a trailer as yearly as 2015.

As for the title, I like it. This trilogy is proving to be going its own way with the naming conventions of each film in their respective trilogies. More so with this title. The title absolutely implies that Luke will have a very big role this time. It could end up having a surprising meaning, though, with something happening to Luke/Rey.

Wouldn't it be weird if they suddenly killed off Rey making Luke the last Jedi once again?

I do get that that's not going to happen given Hamill's age, but still.

Well.. but he's not really the only writer.

SW has always been a "by committee" movie series, except the PT. But the OT and these new movies seem to have the same structure. With 8 i do know Kasdan has contributed, he's unaccredited right now and i dont know if he will be accredited, but we do know he wrote a lot of stuff for 7 that they are simply shifting to 8. Plus there is the storygroup that has to approve all stories, will edit as they see fit (although from what i understand they are very lenient and good to work with) and place and/approve character usage and story for that character.

Its really the definition of a movie done by committee, so hes not really on his own and people who know SW (Pegg is once again over-seeing filming an dproduction to ensure it "feels" like a SW movie, everything is in line, and that its what fans would want and accept) are by his side 24.... 6, and the 1 day they are not, he has access tot hem. So i dont see this as a very big concern or deal.

Take a look at who is doing Episode IX. He is even more inexperienced.

Now the long wait for December begins.

@Serraph105: Not almost as weird as Finn all of a sudden becoming the new Jedi if that's still going on, but yeah, it be suicidal for Disney to go that route killing Rey in the process just for Luke's big role again. Mark Hamill's age looks good, almost better shape then the rest of the old SW cast.

Rian Johnson's hardly "untested", you just may not be familiar with his filmography.

Brick has an 80% on RT and is one of my all time favorite films. It's indie and relatively unknown but it's awesome.

Brothers Bloom is his lowest rated film on RT with a 66%.

Looper, while it has some plot holes (like pretty much -every- movie involving time travel) is a 93% on RT and it made a bunch of cash.

Maybe you don't know him, but I got -really- excited when I heard he was doing the next SW film.

-Byshop

Huh... im a bit shocked that i have not seen Brick..... that's about to change though.

But uhh... i was excited for him because i saw Looper and.... he treated the genera and idea with respect and reverence. He seemed to know where and when to note of and nod to similar and previous work (blade runner, 5th Element, etc) and even with its... smaller holes, nothing huge IMO, its like.... a full point away from being amazing.... It would be like a 7.5 or 8, with a little bit more tweaking and direction... something Disney and the SW story group can offer him, it seems like one of his movies is just waiting to be an A+ 9 or 9.5 movie.

Its weird because im not even that big of a fan of Looper but when i watch it (and ive seen it like four or five times now) i notice its just oozing with this sci-fi potential.

Looper was a great movie, so I'm all about it

Looper was far from flawless but it sure was a fun ride and there was a lot too it, but again time travel as a sci-fi concept is nearly impossible to do without plot holes, especially if you want to go the "fun" route of time travel where changing the future is actually possible. Even Primer, which may be the best time travel movie ever, had a ton of these only there that was literally the point.

-Byshop

Star Wars (insert roman numeral) We miss Princess Leia

Its funny you just mentioned Primer.

Two days ago i burnt it for a buddy of mine and printed out one of the time line explanation maps you find on google. He said even with the page he had to watch it twice. Im like... "yah dude i have not used the keys yet and im up to like six viewings and theres still about 15-20% of it i have yet to fully piece together. "

Yep, people been citing Looper since the beginning of time but that movie didn't impressed me either.

I personally don't have any faith in the new Star Wars movies.

The Force Awakens was a blatant re-make of A New Hope.

Rogue One was a cash-grab and nothing more.

But hey, that's just me.

I'm looking forward to it.

And, I think people are reading into this something that's not there. I think the Last Jedi in the title refers to Luke... and I think Rey is not going to be a Jedi, but going to be something else entirely.

I might be wrong about this, but personally I get the feeling the Force itself intentionally engineered the end of the Jedi because they had become as much a problem to balance as the Sith. I don't believe the Force is looking for a new Jedi order... so when Luke tried to create one, I think it used his nephew to end it. But I also don't think it wants a new Sith order either... So Rey is the Force's final solution to both. Someone new, who can use the Force through both emotion and focus, and who is getting lessons from both Sith and Jedi methods of using the Force in how to wield her powers.

@kod said:

@Byshop said:

Looper was far from flawless but it sure was a fun ride and there was a lot too it, but again time travel as a sci-fi concept is nearly impossible to do without plot holes, especially if you want to go the "fun" route of time travel where changing the future is actually possible. Even Primer, which may be the best time travel movie ever, had a ton of these only there that was literally the point.

-Byshop

Its funny you just mentioned Primer.

Two days ago i burnt it for a buddy of mine and printed out one of the time line explanation maps you find on google. He said even with the page he had to watch it twice. Im like... "yah dude i have not used the keys yet and im up to like six viewings and theres still about 15-20% of it i have yet to fully piece together. "

It's literally impossible because every time they observe something that changes, then the timeline that involved them going into the machine in the first place changes over and over again, leaving doubles and paradoxes. That's the brilliance of it.

-Byshop

I'm officially excited, handing over my money now for tickets, Blu ray and merchandise!

Star Wars is going to turn into Call of Duty if Disney aren't careful... don't milk it too much or people will get sick of it. Fast.

The operative word there was "fairly". Thanks for assuming I didn't take 10 seconds to google the man and his short body of work on wiki.

True, but they did do Jurassic World which would have been the highest grossing movie in 2015 if it didn't compete with Force Awaken. So it makes sense from a corporate perspective to combine elements from two high grossing films to a winning recipe.

Honestly curious how you KNOW for a fact that Kasdan is involved in writing e8.

I didn't assume that. I assumed you hadn't seen any of his films beyond Looper based on your statements, and googling an IMDB list doesn't tell you how good a film you haven't seen is (only how good it might be). I've seen all of this films and his first one is one of the coolest films I have ever seen. Not only are they good films, but each one is very unique. I'd rather judge the talent based on the quality of the work rather than the quantity. You might not share my taste, but I'm way more excited to see him do the next Star Wars film than someone like James Cameron. Unique, cool, and interesting is what Star Wars needs more than anything at this point.

-Byshop

Actually plot holes is nearly impossible in time travel movies. If you accepted the fictional fact that time is nonlinear then pretty much anything is possible and can be explained in the context. Whether what you think are loopholes are addressed in the movie or not is frankly irrelevant.

Safety Not Guaranteed was pretty cool but I'm not sure that one film will segway into a successful Star Wars film. That was more of a quirky indie drama. We'll see, though.

-Byshop

The idea that "plot holes is nearly impossible in time travel movies" is silly. Of course you can have plot holes, illogical plot devices, or any other number of things that might not have anything to do with the time travel itself as a concept. Even if we accept time travel in a film like Looper, why would you ever send a Looper back to kill themselves? It seems like this big liability that they might choke in the moment of truth. Why not send a Looper back to a different Looper to kill when you "close their loop"? Problem solved. The whole central premise of the movie falls apart with that one idea, but it's a fun ride so we go with it.

-Byshop

Simple: The guys who organized the system in the future are idiots. I mean, why else would they be sending people back in time to be assassinated by people when they can just send them further back in time to the middle of the last ice age and let them freeze to death? Or better yet, drop them on Earth while it was still mostly molten rock.

There are so many simpler and more effective methods of using time travel to kill someone than sending them back to be assassinated. The fact they rely on assassins in the first place demonstrates a remarkable lack of brains. The fact they have the assassins kill their future selves just goes hand-in-hand with the stupidity they've already shown.

You seen and liked all of his handful of work, great, good for you. I'm still failing to understand why you think your opinion of his movies matters to the millions of people who might be interested in going to see a SW movie. Having Jurassic World writers do e9 actually makes sense. They are "tested" in the sense that they proven themselves capable of taking an existing and hugely popular franchise and make it appeal to a broad audience (making Disney boatload of money). Frankly Rian hasn't done that, so I considered him fairly untested. It wasn't intended as an insult to Johnson, his work or his fans.

Like I already said, your tastes may differ but I'm jazzed. You might have a different opinion had you seen all of his films and not just Looper was my point.

-Byshop

Again that's not a plot hole. You close your own loop to prevent you from killing other loopers to prevent them from killing you once you retire. Makes perfect sense to me.

Whether you're excited has nothing to do with what I was talking about.

Yeah, there's a lot there we have to take on faith. Technology has progressed to the point that time travel exists but that's literally the only effective way to get rid of a body? Dropping them into concrete foundations or lava isn't an option? You really have to transcend space and time just to kill a guy? They explain it away with literally one line in the script and then it's just taken on faith after that.

Still, fun movie.

-Byshop

Because the further back you go the more the effect is likely to manifest itself in unexpected ways in the future. Sure you can send them to the ice ages, what happened when people in the near present discovers a perfectly evolved human body? Like I said, having to end your own loop isn't stupid, it's meant to keep the "loop" tight as possible to minimize causality fallout.

You can believe time travel technology but tracking a body through concrete or burn to crisp in lava is some how too incredible to swallow? You are saying that subatomic tagging and tracking is harder than "transcending space and time"? Wow, ok...

Nothing happens when they discover a perfectly-evolved human body. Modern humans were all over the globe during the last ice age.

And I think the movie itself demonstrates how much worse of a causality fallout can result from people closing their own loops.

You think humans have not evolved in the last 10,000 or so years? lol sign me up for some of that ice age quarter pounders, health and dental plan.

Not that much. We have slightly more mutations as a species, slightly more immunity to disease, and are slightly shorter than our ancestors.

But none of that would really be that observable from a random skeleton found in the ice. Keep in mind that, even for bodies found in glaciers, one that's anything close to intact is massively rare.

None of that stops them from dropping bodies into volcanoes. Or space. Or solid rock 1000s of feet below the surface of the earth. Or the future. And that's all assuming we take for granted that the only practical way to get rid of dead bodies is time travel...

-Byshop

Not an anthropologist but I'm pretty sure they can easily tell a modern day human from one from 10,000 years ago, even if it was just the skeleton. Plus people have no way of predicting how something as simple as moving a cm of dirt in the far distant past can manifest itself in the future (or I guess present). But hey I'm no chaos theorist or whatever.