When Daisy Ridley appeared at the 88th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, she did so during a brief break from filming STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII. The follow-up to THE FORCE AWAKENS has been in production for some time now, with sets being built going back to November 15. One set that didn’t have to be built was the island of Skellig Michael, off of Ireland, which acts as the location where Luke Skywalker has been in hiding. THE FORCE AWAKENS ended there, and EPISODE VIII will begin there. Ridley spoke a little about what it was like to revisit Skellig, and to continue working with Mark Hamill- who’s reprising his iconic role as Luke Skywalker.
“When we went back to Skellig to do the opening of [Episode] VIII, it was so crazy doing the same scene with a different crew of people,” Ridley told MTV. That does, indeed, sound like a unique experience- to do the same thing, but with a different crew and director shouting “Action!”
This time around Ridley will get to work more one-on-one with Hamill, who only appeared in the film’s final scene, and she sounds very excited about the process so far. “Me and Mark have been rehearsing a lot, and it’s really amazing,” she gushed. “He’s amazing to rehearse with, and I’m very excited to be doing the rest of the stuff.“
While she couldn’t reveal any plot details, Ridley did share her opinion of the script and give us an inkling that Luke will be making quite a mark on it. “It’s such a good story,†she said. “Seriously. Luke is so cool in this one. Really.“
That last part is good to hear, as that was one of my disappointments with THE FORCE AWAKENS. While I loved the film, I spent so much time looking forward to seeing Luke that it was a bit of a letdown that we only got 30 seconds of him at the end. Director J.J. Abrams had gotten me hyped up about the idea that his film would really explore who the character was, and then they didn’t really do anything with him. It sounds like they saved Luke’s best stuff for EPISODE VIII, though, so I’m definitely looking forward to this.
STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII comes out December 15, 2017.
SOURCE: MTV