Adam Driver Compares 'Star Wars: Episode VIII' to 'The Empire Strikes Back'
While Rogue One: A Star Wars Story continues to release new trailers ahead of its Dec. 16 release, the next installment in the series’ main narrative — Rian Johnson’s as-yet-untitled Episode VIII — has kept details largely under wraps. Other than some speculation about the mysterious hairstyle Daisy Ridley’s Rey will sport, and the fact that Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, has at least temporarily shaved his scruffy beard, there’s been little news about the sequel, which will hit theaters on Dec. 15, 2017. But now, one of its biggest stars has spoken out about the film’s script — and he’s comparing it to the franchise’s most beloved entry.
Speaking to Collider’s Steven Weintraub while doing promotion for Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, Adam Driver (a.k.a. Kylo Ren) revealed that, in terms of tone, Episode VIII reminds him of 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back: “It’s similar to how The Empire Strikes Back has a different tone. For that people always go ‘Oooh, it’s dark,’ but I don’t know that it necessarily is. It’s just different in tone in a way that I think is great and necessary but also very clear. [Director Rian Johnson] trusts [that] his audience is ready for nuance and ambiguity. He’s not dumbing anything down for someone and that’s really fun to play.”
Related: John Williams Says He’ll Be Scoring ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ — Also He’s a Huge Rey Fan
As for working with Johnson, Driver has nothing but praise for the man taking over from The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams:
“Rian is coming into something that we kind of set up and he just took it to the next level in a really great way. He wrote it, too, and Rian’s writing is so clear. I learned a lot of things about my character through his writing. Some things we talked about before and some things we didn’t. He was working on [the script] while we were still working on the first one. To understand what J.J. was doing and take ownership from there is kind of a remarkable thing. And he’s the most polite, unassuming guy and he was appropriately territorial about some things, but would still be the first to admit when something’s not working.”
While Driver goes on to describe what it’s like to work on a project with the enormous scale — and myriad moving parts — of a Star Wars film, he dutifully avoids spilling any crucial secrets about Episode VIII. Meaning that while his entire thoughts can be read at Collider, fans will have to wait a while longer before they get any truly juicy information on the follow-up to The Force Awakens.
