We Star Wars fans already knew this, but Rian Johnson confirms no plan for Episode 9 whilst shooting The Last Jedi. Johnson made The Last Jedi without giving too much thought to what would come next. His only goal was to leave potential paths for whoever came in next. Johnson also confirmed he was unware of the decision to kill off Ben Solo. That’s pretty much because until Abrams was brought back on board for Episode 9, there were no plans to kill Ben.
Sariah Wilson has released some more from her interview with Johnson. Check out her Tweets below.
And laughingly asked me what that was for. I told him I had a lot of feelings about that ending and then showed him my Ben Solo Deserved Better T-shirt, which made him laugh more.
He explained that it was very much a full hand-off between 7 and 8, just as it was from 8 to 9
— Sariah Wilson (@sariahwilson) March 3, 2021
"But to have lots of dramatic potential" for 9. He answered my question again by saying he didn't know whether Kylo would live or die, then quickly corrected himself to say he didn't know whether *Ben* would live or die, and how the series would resolve.
— Sariah Wilson (@sariahwilson) March 3, 2021
Now, what is interesting about leaving room for ‘dramatic potential’ is that the next team clearly felt the opposite. Abrams team at the time had said that Rian hadn’t left them much room to maneuver in Episode 9. However, how much room did Abrams give Johnson to maneuver in Episode 8? One of the things Johnson had to deal with was what Abrams decided to do with Luke Skywalker. Additionally Johnson was forced to begin The Last Jedi directly after The Force Awakens due to the way that movie ended with Rey and Luke.
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Equally, Johnson pretty much made the decision to not have Ben be redeemed in this trilogy. However, Abrams clearly wanted that ending, (because he has no originality). Therefore Palpatine’s return, as I said from the very day it was announced, was a redemption tool. It sucked, like everything else about The Rise of Skywalker.
It’s a shame such a reckless attitude was taken with one of Hollywood’s most lucrative franchises. Sure, fans are still eager to see the Mandoverse expanded. But we will always have that ill advised, poorly planned sequel trilogy. Thus we are left with three great movies out of a nine part Skywalker Saga. Three packed with ideas but badly executed and three well executed with no ideas.
It might seem redundant at this point, but what do you think of Johnson’s confirmation that there was no plan for Episode 9? As always leave any thoughts below.
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