“This is not going to go the way you think.”
In many ways, Luke’s grave warning to the hopeful, wide-eyed Rey in The Last Jedi can be construed as a subtle message from Rian Johnson himself, whose screenplay and overall creative vision resulted in some of the biggest and most shocking story twists in Star Wars history.
From the sudden death of Supreme Leader Snoke to Rey’s decidedly unremarkable parents, Johnson pulled exactly no punches when delivering Episode VIII, and it’s a credit to the director’s storytelling that many of the film’s key moments are still being debated three months after release. And while promoting a new featurette called The Director and the Jedi, Rian Johnson addressed the classic ‘hero’s journey’ trope, how it relates to Luke, and why, ultimately, “myths are not made to sell action figures.”
Speaking at a roundtable interview (via The Hollywood Reporter), here’s what Johnson had to share:
If you look at any classic hero’s myth that is actually worth its salt, at the beginning of the hero’s journey, like with King Arthur, he pulls the sword from the stone and he’s ascendant — he has setbacks but he unites all the kingdoms. But then if you keep reading, when it deals with the hero’s life as they get into middle-age and beyond, it always starts to get into darker places. And there’s a reason for that: It’s because myths are not made to sell action figures; myths are made to reflect the most difficult transitions we go through in life.
Further details on Johnson’s craftsmanship, along with Mark Hamill’s own reactions to Luke Skywalker and his journey in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, will be featured on the sequel’s Blu-ray when it arrives on March 27th.