Did Rian Johnson Throw Away Abrams' Story For 'The Last Jedi?'

For a while now, “Star Wars” fans have been worried that there’s been no real direction for this newest Skywalker Trilogy’s story. The disconnect in stories between ‘The Force Awakens’ and ‘The Last Jedi’ was obvious. And there have been clues to this worry being actual fact. In interviews, ‘The Last Jedi’ writer/director Rian Johnson alluded to the creative freedom he had, but it’s new information from one of the film’s stars that shows just how much of a disconnect existed between the creative teams.

Actress Daisy Ridley, aka Rey, was recently interviewed by French media outlet Le Magazine GEEK (which has been translated by yours truly). She was asked about how much of Rey’s backstory had been decided before ‘The Force Awakens,’ and how much was decided after that film’s debut.

Ridley couldn’t answer that particular question, but she did mention that ‘The Force Awakens’ director J.J. Abrams had the entire trilogy planned out before Johnson took over for ‘The Last Jedi:’

“J. J. wrote ‘Episode VII,’ he also wrote drafts for ‘VIII’ & ‘IX.’ Then Rian arrived and re-wrote [‘The Last Jedi’] entirely. I believe there was some sort of general consensus on the main storylines that would happen in the trilogy, but apart from that, we agreed that every director should probably make his movie his own way. Rian and J. J. Abrams met many times to discuss ‘The Last Jedi,’ although ‘Episode VIII’ is very much mostly Rian’s and I do believe Rian didn’t keep anything from the first draft of the ‘Episode VIII’ script”

What we can gather from Ridley’s carefully constructed wording is that Johnson took Abrams’ draft of ‘The Last Jedi’ and that Rian, according to her, threw away most, if not all, of what Abrams had written. Yikes. This also gives us a better idea of how the “hand-off” happened between Abrams and Johnson. As Johnson discussed in our own interview, the supposed interaction among Abrams and Johnson was very limited. In fact, Johnson likened it to a relay race, where he came in fresh, right as ‘The Force Awakens’ began production, and didn’t have any direction on where to take ‘The Last Jedi.’

If Ridley is to be believed, and there’s no reason to discredit the star of the trilogy, then Abrams, and presumably Kathleen Kennedy, had very specific, written ideas for the direction of the trilogy, but Johnson decided to start fresh, with his own take. In all fairness to Johnson, Kennedy and Lucasfilm were probably very excited about this new direction, and obviously signed off of it. In our interview, Johnson also mentioned how he is leaving the trilogy with no direction, giving Abrams and Co. the most freedom they can have for the concluding chapter, ‘Episode IX.’

Disney opted for Abrams to take over for the dismissed Colin Trevorrow on ‘Episode IX,’ who, we now know, is the supposed brainchild behind this new saga. This probably signals a return to business as usual, as far as “Star Wars” storytelling goes. Perhaps this is enough to bring back the purists that were turned off by Johnson’s more unique take on the franchise.