Johnson Talks KENOBI: Directing His Standalone Movie, And Why He Wasn’t In STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

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Rian Johnson has been entrusted with the keys to the Star Wars galaxy. Aside from directing The Last Jedi, he’s got a whole new Trilogy on his to-do list. Yet, with all of the mystery surrounding where he wants to take things, he’s opened himself up to all kinds of questions about the characters and plot lines he’d like to explore. Johnson’s done himself no favors, either, by making public statements that make it sound like everything is fair game for his new Star Wars movies.

See, contrary to popular belief, it’s not set in stone that his trilogy will be completely new. While the initial announcement of his hiring for a new trilogy included the theory that this would be something wholly different and entirely original, some failed to notice these remarks he made to Yahoo back in December when asked about whether or not we may see some old characters in the new films:

“I’m just starting to think about it and get into it, so who knows? I wanna keep it just totally wide open in terms of possibilities. That’s what’s so exciting about it right now, is just the notion of one story, three movies, the sky’s the limit. We can really do anything… The possibilities are thrilling.”

That quote’s important because he doesn’t rule out bringing back some classic Star Wars characters. Quite the contrary, really.

There’s one classic character, in particular, that fans are dying to see again and that’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. While it’s been reported that there’s a film about the character in the early stages of development, that hasn’t stopped people from asking Johnson if he’d want to be involved in bringing Kenobi back to the big screen.

Johnson says he’d rather see that movie than direct it:

“In seeing it? Sure, I’ll watch that movie in a heartbeat. Right now, I’m just focused on the new trilogy. Isn’t that enough? God, man, I’d love to see that movie.”

So it doesn’t sound like he’s keen on bringing Kenobi back himself. But what about in The Last Jedi, was there ever a thought of bringing back Luke’s original mentor for that film?

“There wasn’t because the one opportunity for a Force presence to come in and talk to Luke is in that scene and it just made all the sense in the world to me, for so many reasons, for it to be Yoda. If Alec Guinness were still around, it would’ve made sense for it to be Kenobi. I love Ewan’s [McGregor] Kenobi so much but the Luke that we know here never knew that version of Ben so it would feel weird to have that version talking to him.”

Makes sense.

Who would you like to see direct Kenobi: A Star Wars Story? A few months back it was reported that Stephen Daldry was in talks to direct it, but the trail has since gone cold.

SOURCE: ComicBook.com