The Force Awakens was a runaway success – you know it, I know it, and after collecting upwards of $2.01 billion worldwide, Disney knows it, too.
As the first mainline Star Wars movie in almost a decade, J.J. Abrams’ reboot shouldered the burden of pumping fresh blood into a franchise that had arguably fallen by the wayside prior to Disney’s historic acquisition of Lucasfilm. All in all, the end result was a slam dunk and now, it’s up to Rian Johnson to repeat that success with the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which isn’t too far off.
In case you missed it, the director’s upcoming space opera – one that appears to share DNA with Empire after all – has been elected as the cover star of Entertainment Weekly’s fall issue. And that can only mean one thing: scores of exciting tidbits relating to the next chapter in Lucasfilm’s beloved Skywalker saga.
Pegged for release on December 15th of this year, EW’s coverage will no doubt serve as a welcome primer for Force Friday (September 1st), which is expected to herald a new line of merchandise for The Last Jedi and other Star Wars properties simmering in development. Until that time, though, we’ve got tons to pour over in terms of new information about the highly anticipated pic, and the latest update revolves around the legendary Han Solo.
Though he met his end in The Force Awakens, it seems that the character will still have an important part to play in the next outing for the franchise. Or at least, his ghost will. Speaking to EW as part of their blowout, Johnson had the following to say about how Han will factor into things:
“Han, the ghost of — well, not literally [laughs]. I don’t want to misguide. I have to be very careful with my words here,” Johnson shared. “But a figurative ghost of Han had to be present throughout this entire film.”
Adding onto that, Daisy Ridley said that Rey’s shocked that Kylo Ren would kill his own father, which is something that fuels her anger towards him.
“She just doesn’t understand Kylo,” the actress said. “When all she wanted was parents, why would a person who has parents do that? It’s so beyond comprehension, it’s ridiculous. So she has grief for the loss and then there’s anger. To be honest, she couldn’t understand doing something like that – let alone to your parents.”
Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be with us on December 15th. Beyond that, the Powers That Be have also lined up a Han Solo Anthology movie and the as-yet-untitled Episode IX, which is to be directed by Colin Trevorrow. And after that? Who knows, but there have been rumblings that the Mouse House has plans for new Star Wars movies all the way up until 2022.
