A brand new ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ behind-the-scenes video has been released, and takes fans to the set of writer/director Rian Johnson‘s upcoming film, offering an exciting glimpse into the huge, complex production run by people who seem equally excited and terrified. Johnson also spoke about his film in a recent interview and a new still from the film featuring a certain long-lost Jedi Knight (above) has been revealed!
The video was unveiled by USA Today, and it is kind of amazing. Part of what makes it great is the beautiful John Williams music scoring throughout, and the other part is Johnson’s obvious excitement for the film, and the kind words his actors have to say about him. As expected, the late Carrie Fisher steals the show with a dry backhanded compliment that is typical of her sense of humor.
Let’s walk through the video shot-by-shot!
This shot features a giant, fluffy animal peering over what appears to be a holding pen. This creature, which is new to us, is called a Fathier, and rivals the Porgs for cutest ‘Star Wars’ animal ever! This is the creature that many have been calling a space horse, which we saw Finn and Rose riding in early set photos.
This next shot appears to be Resistance pilot Poe Dameron on Crait, the desert planet with the eerie red soil fans have seen in trailers. It has been revealed that there will be a big battle between the Resistance and the First Order on this planet, but now we see that some characters will be on foot, literally battling in the trenches.
An intimidating red room with a giant black chair that looks perfect for spinning around in really slowly? This must be the throne room belonging to Supreme Leader Snoke, the mysterious leader of the First Order.
Previous trainers have suggested that John Boyega’s Finn and Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico will have to go on a dangerous undercover mission deep within the First Order. It seems this shot features a character that looks like Benicio del Toro’s DJ, the mysterious “splicer” (hacker) they apparently recruit at some point in the movie.
And now we have my favorite shot of all. Johnson and Mark Hamill just casually hanging out on set, leaning against the wall of a mysterious cave. As you do. The most recent trailer has shown this cave – it’s here that Rey submerges underwater for inexplicable reasons and gets scolded by Luke, who warns here that things won’t go as she thinks they will.
For those who just can’t get enough (read: all of us), Johnson’s interview made it clear that his number one priority for the film was to take these new characters that everyone has fallen in love with and put them through challenges that will push them to the limit. Johnson said:
“When I first read the script of ‘The Force Awakens,’ I was like, “I feel like I know these characters instantly.” And now we get to kind of put them through a meat grinder. And for me, part of that meant that we had to make things as hard on each of them as possible: At least part of the movie, they don’t have their friends around. They’ve got to figure things out for themselves. They’ve got to be faced with whatever the toughest thing each of them can be faced with, and they’re not going to have their buddy there next to them to get them out of it necessarily.”
by Emily Schaab