Rian Johnson on Snoke, Kylo Ren, and Poe’s Improved X-Wing in The Last Jedi!
The Last Jedi is a few months away, and Empire Magazine is releasing their feature on the film. They spoke with writer/director Rian Johnson about several topics, including Supreme Leader Snoke, Kylo Ren, and Poe Dameron’s improved X-Wing.
SUPREME LEADER SNOKE
Character origin stories have become a popular choice among filmmakers in recent years. Just recently we’ve heard of DC potentially making Joker origin films. After hearing Rian Johnson talk about Supreme Leader Snoke in The Last Jedi, it is safe to say that he is not taking that approach when it comes to the leader of The First Order. Johnson, taking a cue from the mystery shrouding Emperor Palpatine in the original trilogy, likes the idea that Snoke doesn’t need a back-story, and that as a matter of fact, us not knowing his back-story makes him all the more mysterious, and fearsome.
“We got the whole story of Palpatine’s rise to power in the prequels, but in the original films he’s exactly what he needs to be, which is just ‘The Emperor’”Johnson tells Empire in the new October issue. “He’s a dark force: the scary thing behind the thing. That was entirely how I approached Snoke. I wasn’t interested in explaining where he came from or telling his history, except where it serves this story.”
We are certain to get a larger dose of Snoke in The Last Jedi as images via merchandise and official released photos have shown us his massive stealth bomber looking Star Destroyer Supremacy, as well as his throne room and loyal Praetorian Guards. Just because we won’t know where Snoke went to grammar school doesn’t mean we will be starved of Andy Serkis’s brilliance this time around.
KYLO REN
Unlike Snoke, who appears to be a more linear, to the point character, Kylo Ren has offered Johnson the opportunity to apply his incredible writing talents, with a character that some could argue might be the most complex Star Wars character we’ve seen. Johnson delves into Kylo, not so much about his evident inner-struggle between dark and light, but more-so about the understanding of how he ended up where he is, how we all have that side of us, and those choices to make.
“Writing Kylo Ren is just so much fun,” says Johnson “Star Wars boils down to the transition from adolescence into adulthood. That’s the heart of these films and Rey is most obviously the one that hangs on. But it’s also Kylo. In the originals you project entirely onto Luke, while Vader is the scary other — he’s the minotaur. The fascinating thing about Kylo and Rey is that they’re two sides of something. We can all relate to Kylo: to that anger of being in the turmoil of adolescence and figuring out who he’s going to be as a man; dealing with anger and wanting to separate from his family. He’s not Vader — at least, he’s not Vader yet — and that’s something I really wanted to get into.”
I have continually said that The Last Jedi will be Kylo Ren’s movie. While Rey and Luke have been in the spotlight, I think Adam Driver will steal the show. As I mentioned before, Kylo Ren might be the most complex Star Wars character we’ve ever seen, and we wait with baited breath to see what direction he takes in The Last Jedi.
Source: Empire
POE DAMERON’S X-WING
The best pilot in The Resistance deserves the best starfighter. Poe Dameron, who appeared to have no issues evading enemy fighters in The Force Awakens, now has a few more features on his X-Wing to make him even more dominant in space battles across the galaxy far, far away. Code-named Black One, Dameron’s X-Wing has been “specially retrofitted with additional thrust to help evade incoming fire.”
For you weapon and ship experts, the official model is Incom-FreiTek T-70. The piece from Empire discusses Rian Johnson’s explanation for the purposes of the X-Wing’s new features:
The X-Wing, according to Rian Johnson, been specially modified by Resistance engineers, with a temporary accelerator pod affixed to the aft section. According to The Last Jedi director, the pod, when primed, increases Dameron’s speed, allowing him to outrun First Order cannon emplacements. It’s just a temporary boost and will burn out quickly but it’s enough to get beyond the barrage of turbo laser fire from First Order Star Destroyers such as the one depicted in the image.
The ring of debris/rocks leads us to believe this showdown between Poe and the Dreadnought happens over D-Qar.
In the behind the scenes sizzle reel from D23, we do see Poe Dameron in the cockpit of a Ski-Speeder, speculated to be on Crait. Does this mean his X-Wing suffers the same fate as the one he had at the village in Jakku? Or perhaps another chain of events finds him in one of these new ships at this moment in time.
Source: Empire
Are you happy we aren’t getting a back-story on Snoke? Is experiencing him now in the present enough for you? What direction do you think Johnson has taken Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi? Finally, what do you make of Poe Dameron’s improved X-Wing? The complete eight-page spread on The Last Jedi at Empire Magazine is due out on Thursday, and we expect a lot more photos and discussion from Rian Johnson about the film.
“For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is.”
You can find me not exploring my back-story on Twitter at @JohnnyHoey and of course you know we’ll be talking about the Empire spread on The Resistance Broadcast this week, you can find us on Twitter @RBatSWNN.
John Hoey is the Lead Editor and Senior Writer for Star Wars News Net and the host of The Resistance Broadcast podcast
"For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is."
I’m a little concerned that this wasn’t as planned out as we were previously led to believe. I swear I recall JJ and Kasdan supposedly doing a rough outline of all three movies. I mean maybe they did… and the new plan is to let each director do whatever.
I just feel this may damage the overall plot. To me who Snoke is… is incredibly important. How the heck did the FO stay together in a post Empire galaxy? Why is he so good at pulling apart the Skywalker order of Jedi? I mean that’s all pretty freaking important IMO!
I was hoping some incredible story tied Luke, Snoke, The Empire, FO, Ben and Rey together. Now it seems it’s all just… dumb space luck?
I believe Snokes backstory is something that will be revealed in Epsiode IX. There has to be at least one or two overarching mysteries that span all three films, and if they explain every question we have from TFA then it leaves no overarching mysteries for the final episode. I expect to see some sort of “final battle” with snoke where we find out his origins – at least to an extent. And then Lucasfilm can elaborate on all of it in another trilogy, or a spin-off or novel. Just because it’s not important now doesn’t make it all dumb space luck, it’s just not an answer we are going to get with this film. Some mysteries are better left for another film.
We are already getting a lot of TFA questions answered in this film, especially concerning Luke’s current state, his new ideals on the Jedi, Rey’s parents, and possibly Poe and Fin’s background as well.
Hey I’m all for that. It’s just his wording made it seem almost like it would never be important. Which to me the way TFA was setup… seemed very important.
Most of the backstory for 6-7 was sketched out before JJ signed on and Rian added to it after he joined.
https://twitter.com/pablohidalgo/status/904131725873123328
That’s what I remembered. We get confusing messages from them sometimes lol.
Exactly
I don’t need an in depth background, but it seems at odds for viewers of the films to not explain a little on where he came from and how the FO rose from the ashes of the Empire. Not everyone wishes or has the time to read the books.
I don’t want Snoke to be another generic Emperor. I want him to have goals beyond what we saw of the Palpatine, maybe breaching the whole search for immortality and using either Rey or Kylo as a vessel for his spirit.
I’m getting this feeling like they want to leave a lot of this stuff up to our imagination but that’s kind of a disservice when really this sort of information is exactly why (at least me) wanted a sequel trilogy! I want to know what is going on. Not some vague story with new heroes fighting things that only matter in the moment.
Movies have evolved. We can tell complex stories and be entertaining.
This is me just fretting. I love what Disney has done so far. I just tend to worry about everything 😛
Thats what the movies starring new younger actors as Luke, Han, and Leia will explore. We’ll have 20 years get the rest of the story.
I’m not convinced stand alone movies are needed to give a detailed history on such things, when a few lines will suffice.
I never said those movies are needed.. I’m convinced we’re going to get those movies however.
lol – true
Snoke got his start inheriting his father’s real estate companies, made a name for himself being a power-hungry egomaniac who likes tacky gold decor and then duped a bunch of naive people into making him supreme leader. There’s your backstory.
To be fair only 27% of Imperial Remnant voted for him.
He started the First Order with a small loan of one million credits.
Then Mon Mothma was super-duper confused that all of those naive people didn’t immediately flock to her side when she called them all stupid imperialist dirtbags, who probably like to kick Hookibs for fun.
We already know Snoke’s back story… http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/8200000/Austin-Powers-Goldmember-austin-powers-8220814-852-480.jpg
A Snoke and a pancake?
The problem I have taking the same approach with Snoke as RotJ did with the Emperor is that, prior to SW and RotJ, we didn’t (at the time) really know where the Empire had come from, or really what the galaxy looked like before he came to power. You can have a shadowy puppetmaster in that scenario, and it’s perfectly satisfying – there’s nothing that really NEEDS to be explained. With Snoke on the other hand, we know exactly where things were left off, we know pretty much the state of the galaxy before he comes to prominence, and TFA presents a pretty fucking hard left turn from where we left our heroes 30 years ago. That’s FINE to do, but I think it’s a bit of a narrative cheat to try and hand-wave away explaining just what the hell happened by going “oh, he’s MYSTEEEEEEEERIOUS”.
This is a big problem for me, too. J.J. talked about how he loved ANH because the audience was just dropped into the action. But that was fine for ANH. Galactic Empire bad. Plucky Rebellion good. It was simple. We didn’t need more info than that.
But this is a sequel. What happened between trilogies is important. It seems to me that it would’ve made far more sense to reveal the return of Empire — in the form of the First Order — in TFA. Then all the questions we the audience had could be asked by the movie’s characters, because they’d share our lack of knowledge.
Keep in mind Disney is filling in the gaps between movies with anthology films, cartoon series, novels, young adult novels, and comic books. That is how they make money.
I feel like that is an unsustainable buisness model. I mean yes, obviously they will always make money on Star Wars. But speaking personally I am much more compelled to buy books etc to amazing characters and well developed Movies. If every movie becomes a question-fest of “see this comic book” then that will get old real fast. Making GOOD, satisfying films is the only way continues to be this popular forever instead of being watered down to nothing in a few decades.
I disagree. I think everything you need to know is in the movies and those supplemental materials are just filler that explain things which really require no explanation.
I get that. It seems that every single line of dialogue from the OT is being fleshed out in other media. And that’s fine.
But in the OT, through exposition, everything that was needed in order to understand the movie was provided. You didn’t need to read a book. You shouldn’t have to. Forcing another author to do the heavy lifting when it comes to world-building is just plain lazy.
And that’s the difference between the OT and the ST. In the OT, important info was provided — and THEN it was explored in other media. In the ST, exposition barely exists. If you want to know anything about the state of the galaxy, you need to check out a comic … or a novel … or a standalone.
Not to mention that dialogue on TFA explicitly says that he had some sort of history with Luke/Leia/Ben. Ben and Snoke’s relationship was known to Leia and she knows that is how he was corrupted and fell to the darkside. There is a clear connection there so it’s a bit frustrating to see that it possibly won’t get explored in TLJ.
I highly doubt we’ll never get an explanation on Snoke’s backstory in the films. Seems like the big reveal in 8 would likely be centered around Rey’s past and what luke was doing, and 9 will give us a info about what really happened with Snoke. Or at the very least, we will get introduced to some new element of his story in 9 that will make him more threatening. After all, he’s the final boss right? They gotta save some meat of the story for the last chapter. Just because RJ didn’t focus on a backstory for this one doesn’t mean the door is closed on that sort of exposition in ep 9.
I fully expect a Disney animated series in a few years focusing on Ben Solo’s teenage years. They will come up with some backstory for Snoke then.
This is perfect. Give me Snoke’s background in a book or in a single line of dialogue in TLJ. There are more interesting characters to explore on screen.
Also, the Dreadnaught looks much better in the movie than the render they released a couple weeks ago.
Snoke was actually one of the most interesting characters in TFA.
I don’t think Snoke had enough screen time in TFA to be either interesting or uninteresting. Personally, I think ke looked like a rather feeble leader in Episode VIII compared for example to Palpatine in the OT.
Pretty much agree with you. I didn’t really like or dislike Snoke in TFA, my feelings towards him were fairly ambivalent based on what we saw of him in the movie. I figured we’d see more of him in the next installments and it would be easier to form an opinion. One thing is for sure , I didn’t find him very scary or intimidating – his 50 foot hologram and disfigured face notwithstanding. I thought The Emperor projected a much more evil and sinister vibe in the OT. There currently does seem to be a fair amount of similarity between the two though – like Snoke is just Palpatine version 2.0. But we’ll see what they do with him in these next movies…
“Who you gonna Kylo? Sky-walker!”
“I ain’t afraid of no Snoke…”
Interesting enough to learn more about if you want to but there are actual human’s in the film who are relatable to the audience. No one is going to form a connection to him the way they might with Luke, Anakin, Rey or Kylo. A Star Wars movie should move at a good clip and only give you the information you need.
totally agree Dreadnought looking way better here. which is cool
To me snoke is even more importantly that who Rey’s is. TFA works equally well if Rey is a skywalker, a kenobi, or a random scavenger who is gifted in the force. Snoke ,however, the whole threat of the first order rests on who he is. Is he a random guy who just likes putting former empires back together? Is he more powerful than Luke? The emperor could stay mysterious because the empire was cohesive enough that we knew whoever ran it was the real deal. But Snoke being a backup emperor just hanging out isn’t quite as satisfying. Not saying he needs to be plageius or something, but if snoke is just evil dude in gold/black then the story feels less like a continuation of the OT and more like a bad guy of the month.
I’m a little nervous how when explaining both Snoke and Kylo he used the reasoning “Well, in the originals…”
If you go by Leia’s lines in TFA, clearly Snoke didn’t just come out of nowhere being this Super Duper bad guy. He clearly was allowed to get close to Ben and corrupt him. He has some history with the Skywalkers, that is certain. What exactly that is, I don’t believe TLJ will answer it.
And honestly, I hope it doesn’t answer it. I hope the save his secrets for Episode IX.
Especially because that was supposed to be ‘Leia’s film’. They probably didn’t plan to reveal anything in 8. She’d probably speak on it in 9. Now…well, who knows.
Exactly, and that is why I think a Disney cartoon series about Ben Solo’s teenage years wiould be the best opportunity to elaborate on how Snoke got close to him.
“Snoke stand….Snoke stand so….Snoke stand so close to me…”
I heard the guy that plays Luke Skywalker has done some voice acting before.
What Ezra is Snoke and we already have a cartoon show about young Snoke?
I don’t think Ezra is Snoke, although I am anxious to see how Disney will explain why Ezra is unheard of and nowhere to be seen in the OT (assuming of course they don’t just kill him off at the end of Rebels, which would be quite lame frankly).
What he physically close to Ben or did he weasel in via the Force?
I read somewhere that Lucasfilm storygroup forbid anyone to explore Jakku in comics or anywhere else. I think they have bigger plans for Jakku/Snoke background in the future
If Snoke has no significance and is just another another “emperor” than they should’ve just made Ben the leader and creator of the first order. Idk that’s just my opinion. Having the son of Han and Leia become this tyrannical leader of the force that opposes the republic they fought so hard to achieve in their youth would have been more impactful and ironic than just having another cloaked, mysterious and obviously bad emperor figure. Been there, done that.
Nice idea – and totally agree another “emperor” will be a hard pill to swallow.
Thanks, I just wish they would’ve put a little more creativity towards TFA that’s all. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still excited for the rest of the films, but it angers me when I start to think of the different directions the ST could have taken had TFA been a bit better than it already is. It really only needed two things: no Snoke, and Luke showing up to save Rey and Finn after he was too late to save Han from his nephew. That’s it.
Don’t forget “no Starkiller (aka overblown Death Star III on steroids)….”
That could’ve been replaced with a fleet of FO Star destroyers raining down aerial strikes and destroying Hosnian Prime.
Or we could NOT create any big armada, and just focus on what the original script of TFA was about – looking for parts of Luke Skuwalker map, and who gets to him first.
Getting rid of Snoke would of allowed Phasma to have a far greater role as well.
Yup, it’s just too many villains. It clutters the plot. Phasma could have been Ben’s right hand woman. Establish a close bond with the two of them, and when she inevitably dies it could have served as an emotional scene.
You should write that down.
Snoke is there because you need a power player to make the First Order a massive threat. Kylo Ren couldn’t have organized such a massive, well-funded, well-organized force in the time since his betrayal.
He had about 10 years, 10 years to gather imperial sympathizers, scavenge old imperial bases, and obtain funding by the same means it was hinted the FO raised theirs. Besides don’t forget he is the grandson of Lord Vader himself, I’m sure it will be easy to gain followers with such reputation. And honestly the FO doesn’t even have to be as big as it was represented in TFA, I still find it strange that a remnant of the Empire grew so large under the New republic’s noses.
“Creativity” = having the main character of the previous trilology swoop in and save the day? That’s the polar opposite of “creative”. In fact, it would’ve been fan jerking at the nth degree (not to mention that it would’ve made most of the movie pointless and entirely moot).
And, seriously: there’s no need to throw the C-word around, especially if you are someone who pays to watch Star Wars, the MCU and other huge franchises.
I honestly would prefer some sort of fan service of that degree especially from a film that was so obviously geared for fan service. The movie itself was a nostalgia machine. So yes, having Luke, the hero of the OT show up to save the new generation of heroes when the audience thinks all hope is lost, would have been better than the plot hole JJ left when he created the Mary Sue that we all know as Rey.
We”ll see what they do with him, but so far I like that he’s just a creepy, dark dude who corrupted Kylo. I think the son of Han and Leia and the student of Luke would have to have succumbed to someone like that for his darkness to be believable. Now, whether he needed to be the head of the First Order, maybe not. Again, we’ll see.
You can’t use the lack of info we got on the Emperor during the OT as the excuse to not give us Snoke’s backstory. Because of the back story we already know of the SW universe, and where we last saw the state of the galaxy at the end of Jedi, as a viewer, we do need to know who Snoke is and how he came to power. No, I don’t need to know where he went to school, but I do need to know how he was able to seize control of the remnants of the Empire that becomes the First Order.
The must show where Snoke came from in Ep9, not in a book, 99% of people won’t read the books.
Snoke may be another former pupil of Luke who was friendly with Ben and used that friendship to corrupt his mind with the promise he can take over as master of the Knights of Ren
Yes, but 99% of the people going to see the movie won’t give a crap of where Snoke came from.
He’s Ezra from Star Wars Rebels. Maybe 93% of people won’t watch the TV shows.
Riiight, he must really sprout in his late teens and then at some stage after that he’ll decide to completely change his accent.
Ezra and Kanan will accompany Thrawn to the unknown regions of space to investigate some mystery or potential threat.
They are going to encounter some really freaky and powerful Force stuff. Kanan and Ezra get tossed into this twisted world. Kanan is lost never heard from again but Ezra rises to the top at a heavy cost.
Due to the alien environment or from the force and a side effect from regenerating his broken body – Ezra grows to an extreme height. The accent is a combination of damage to his throat and just picking up how people talk in the most remote parts of space.
Now that modified X-Wing could be a fun plot point. Why is he taking on that Star Destroyer – seemingly alone – for?
With that modified X-wing he can escape from Hoth i mean Dqar faster
The D’qar space battle is in NO WAY the Hoth battle.
you dont know dude
True. Everything from here to December 15 is 100% speculation.
“I got a Baaaaad feeling about this”
It doesn’t seem like anyone likes mystery anymore. Maybe it’s the age we live in now where you can look up everything on a device in your pocket. I don’t need every answer in the next movie. It’s a trilogy. I re-read his quote about Snoke and he states the movie doesn’t explain his entire history except where it serves the story. That “except” could explain a great many things I would like to know. Where did Snoke he come from or how he lured Ben to the dark side? I want to see the movie first before I start bitching about it.
Most interesting. Snoke, I will be honest; I am indifferent. TFA rarely shedded any light on him which is fine. Except showing him too much. If anything, my hope is that Snoke isn’t just Emperor Palpatine 2.0. That there is something to him.
Palpatine what made him work in the OT was that he symbolically represented the evil and maliciousness of the Empire. Don’t get me wrong; I love the character, especially Luceno’s book, Plaugeis which really shedded some amazing introspection onto Palpatine(a shame that is no longer canon).
If Snoke’s development is saved for Episode Nine, that’s fine. But really, I do hope we get some reveal on him. Maybe, he is a former First Jedi? As for Kylo, that intrigues me. To be fair; he is the only new character of TFA I can tolerate, ignoring the dumb stuff at the end. And I do like Adam Driver.
If the movie does focus on Kylo, I wouldn’t be opposed. Heck, if the movie sets up a double switch, where Kylo turns light side and Rey to dark side; I will actually praise LF for being balsy enough to do that. But I doubt it. What I will be looking for is how does Kylo change post TFA.
His emotional instability while a good starting point, I argue cannot be dominant. That in order to define himself and step outside the shadow of Vader(which may ironically make him more like Vader) he should forge his own path. And I see some cool things coming from that.
What made Palpy work is Ian McD. Fine actor. With Snoke being cgi and a bit of a rip-off of Palpy, I’m a little worried.
If X-wings can go into hyperspace, why would it need a special booster?
If you can fly in a plane, why buy a car? I think the idea is you want to avoid enemy fire, but stay in the fight.
Speed in hyperspace (which is described as something beyond the fabric of space) are calculated at acceleration per second, which logically doesn’t exist without friction in space.
So, ‘top speeds’ never really make sense unless there’s some sort of limiting aspect outside of approaching the speed of light. It’s never really made sense to compare top speeds of anything under lightspeed or hyperspace, but there’s something in the GFFA that limits top speeds, so yes, a booster would be appropriate.
Why is he talking about Kylo Ren “being in the turmoil of adolescence and figuring out who he’s going to be as a man” when the character is in his mid-30’s?
every men become at 35.
It’s “Bated” breath. That is all.
The emperors back story was told at the beginning of the Star Wars novel. We always knew it even before the (unnecessary) prequels. Mystery is great. Pulling stuff out of your ass with no logic or context is not. Snoke has no logic or context. At least he didn’t in TFA. He was pulled out of Kasdans ass. Vader was scary because he had logic and context. The logic and context increased with each film. Same with the emperor. He was only mentioned in ep4. Snoke is not scary because he has zero context. TFA told us he was bad. But he didn’t do anything bad. Nor was his badness even implied in any compelling way. But that’s just poor film making. Hopefully TLJ will remedy this.