Brian Earl Spilner said:

---

Blue Lightsaber

---

nosoupforyou said:

---

Does anyone think this one will be good? Episode 8 was such a disappointment - sure hope the finish it strong!

---

• Rian Johnson is gone and has absolutely nothing to do with this one.

• Echoing the above, Abrams is back at the helm, and I imagine he has a lot left in the tank, as he's always seemed antsy to revisit this world, like he didn't quite get to finish what he started with TFA, ran out of time, had other ideas he wanted to explore, etc. In other words, based on multiple reports, it sounds like there were a lot of constraints on TFA, both in the production schedule and on the story itself, given how much drama there was behind the scenes (not in terms of conflicting personalities or anything like that, just the reality of the situation).

• I wasn't the biggest fan of TFA overall, but it was at least fun, moved at a fast clip, and had some great moments. TLJ was literally all about stalling and inaction, where Abrams is the exact opposite. No other blockbuster director pushes his stories faster and with as much energy.

• This is also one of the rare times - according to Abrams himself - that he's ever gone into a huge movie like this with a locked/finished script months before production. In the past, because of scheduling issues, he was more often than not either playing catch-up on the fly and/or rewriting well into production, especially on TFA. Knowing that they had the time to (hopefully) get the script right this go around, sit with it and make changes long before production, etc., should, in theory, contribute to a better product.

• As has been discussed before, I think the "clean slate" nature of IX will hopefully work to its advantage as well. Abrams has little to "honor" from TLJ, is setting this one months if not a year or so later, and can almost treat it as a completely new "arc" or somewhat "contained" (in terms of story not spectacle) saga finale.

• Speaking of, I'm also interested to see how Abrams ends a franchise, as he's only ever been tasked with beginnings and middles of franchises (the Lost pilot, the first two Star Trek reboot movies, and the third Mission: Impossible movie). I'm cautiously optimistic that, in getting to flex this new muscle, so to speak, he'll be able utilize his strengths in a fresh way in order to bring it all home in a fun and exciting manner. We shall see.