I got The Last Jedi Artbook last year for my birthday. Read half of it and now just got around to reading the other half as anniversary for The Last Jedi. Very interesting. Here is a list of what I found most interesting and addresses certain issues constantly brought up.-For those that may not know Lucas original idea was Luke being a hermit and depressed.- Originally Finn was the bomber at the start of The Last Jedi with Rose's Sister and just survived but saw her sacrifice. Rose's sister when dying in Finn's hands would leave a blood print on his face/chest like what the First Order Trooper did at the start of Force Awakens. A deliberately intended by Rian Johnson mirror. So the black Gunner on the bomber we see at the start of TLJ was originally going to be Finn. The reason Rian Johnson changed is that he felt if Finn found out that Paige was her Sister then he would either be the jerk that didn't tell her he knew her sister, with her when she died or the whole movie would come to stop for a sister death scene which he felt got disrupt the flow. Thus it was then changed by Rian Johnson. Also, the Dreadnaught wasn't the original target-- in the early draft, it was a Star Destroyer that was Fuel Carrier.- The Vertical Bombers were based on B-Wings but also with Toys in mind. IT was also one of the artist's ideas not Rian Johnson - who thought it would be a cool toy if the bombs fell out vertically. I have seen this as a common complaint of not making sense. Well, it wasn't even Rian Johnson's idea.- Rian Johnson was very into a bomber movie and Vertical Warfare book so really wanted a bomber sequence. He showed every party involved with Star Wars movies of varying degree that explained what thematically and emotionally he was going for. So all of the Lucasfilm people knew EXACTLY what RJ was doing and gave the go ahead.- Katherine Kennedy when she first saw the Canto Blight artwork said it didn't feel like Star Wars, this then led to the artists redesigning elements and bringing out Ralph McQuarrie artwork to convince her (as well as tried to put Bespin influence into the setting)- Rogue One was essentially shot back to back with The Last Jedi is mentioned in the book. Also how they had to rush to get concept artists because the ones that been used on Force Awakens had been transferred to Rogue One and if they didn't get three concept artists they couldn't keep the schedule with TLJ. Essentially they needed new art team for The Last Jedi because all the Force Awakens Art team had been transferred to Rogue One-- or large chunks of them had been.- Phasma was designed in 5 days after Katherine Kennedy loved it but JJ Abrams saw no need for the design. JJ Abrams is quoted as saying that he didn't like it because Kylo Ren wasn't meant to be part of the Stormtroopers but leading them so wanted something else. They literally had no idea of what her character was just visuals. It consistent in both Artbooks that they dont hire writers and story crafters but artists who then with visuals drive story routes. Think they could do with more writers then artists though.- Rian Johnson wasn't sure about First Order Storm Troopers costumes, he didn't feel like they were threatening enough so he wanted a redesign/tweak. This led to artist increasing the brow and tweaking the stormtroopers armour- also changing the colour from a pale white into more grey-white but this essentially led to them completely destroying all Force Awaken Storm Trooper costumes- Rian Johnson was not interested in Kylo Ren's helmet being in the movie. The other artists thought it was cool and how so many kids were wearing it but Rian Johnson wanted to give all the possible space for Adam Driver to act his pants off because he felt that the story for Adam Driver was that important for the character so he wanted nothing hidden by the mask. Essentially he was adamantly wanting no hindrance for Adam Driver acting.- Snoke's Gold outfit was not Rian Johnson idea but another artist-- also the red backdrop for his throne room was designed on the theme of theatrical. Rian Johnson wanted Snoke to be more about theatre. Artists also used The Red Room from Twin Peaks and the red backdrop colour scheme came from an old Ralph McQuarrie artwork. This was artwork for The Return of the Jedi which is Vader, Luke and Palpatine meeting underneath Coruscant near its core so lava, hellfire all around them. So Snoke's Gold Outfit right down to his slippers was designed by Artists, not Rian Johnson. They even had a really tall actor sitting on the throne to maintain convincing eyeline as well as Andy Serkis. The Snoke actor got to wear hand made gown and slipper versions of Snoke's outfit.- DJ for those that don't know now is specifically stated as standing for Don't Join. It was inspired by an old punk band poster Rian Johnson saw and the prison he in was just a drunk tank connected to the Casino. He is also meant to be an alternative route for Finn. RJ says this was due to Finn in the Force Awakens was all about protecting whoever was in front of him but what DJ and Rose with Finn arc in TLJ were meant to bring to the front the notion for Finn of not just protecting who is in front, who you care for but having a cause of protection.- Canto Blight was meant to be no low life or criminals like Jabba The Hut or Mos Eisley. It just meant to be incredibly wealthy and rich - highest of the high cream crop of the universe. Kings, Queens and Warlords- The Code Breaker storyline was meant to be Rose and Finn helping him steal another object of a Warlord. He was undercover as a piano player and then when the mission fails he gets abducted by the authorities (physically, like they have a ship bringing him up in a tractor beam) and then Rose and Finn chucked in the drunk tank of the Casino. So the reason why the Codebreaker got cut is that his story was a dead end.- Rose was Blonde and White, so this idea that Rose was changed for SJW or PC isn't true. It means that Kelly Marie Tran proved herself in the auditions that they completely changed her character- Luke Exile was all about his Guilt over Kylo Ren/Ben and his failure, his last night encounter with Ben and Luke felt that as long as the Sith and Jedi exist you will always have a Darth Vader or Emperor so he wanted Sith and Jedi to die, as in their religion die out and he thought this would happen by his exile and becoming a hermit. This was directly from Johnson himself. So for me, Luke's exile made sense due to experience with trauma and depression but a lot of people say how Luke would never pull a sabre on Kylo/Ben but Johnson point was that very act was also a core part of his exiling.- All the Jedi Temple stuff with Rey, the architecture is all related to Hindu imagery and Taoism. In the artbook, they literally have the Yin and Yang mosaic formed with a sabre wielder. So Taoism was literally the core along with Ying and Yang imagery and message with the Jedi Temple Rey is in.- The Story Group, Dave Filoni, Brain Trusts of Lucasfilms, JJ Abrams all knew what Rian Johnson was doing with the story. Rian Johnson script was least edited out of all the Star Wars scripts with only different drafts with tweaks but the story and what he was doing with the story never changed because all parties and organs of Lucasfilms supported it. So Dave Filoni knew what was going on as did Hidalgo and Story group.- Rian Johnson had personal meeting with Rick Carter Co-Production along with lead artists for the TLJ who went through every aspect of his story, every aspect of the art and then Rian Johnson and other lead artists for TLJ went through with Pablo Hidalgo and Story Group the Star Wars library and complete archive, every decision Rian Johnson made with the story in TLJ went through EVERY part of the Lucasfilm inner circle and he read lots of the Lore and archives on the lore and artwork books, went through it all for ideas for his story. Because Lucasfilm essentially had a massive library and vault/archive of all things Star Wars. SO LET THIS BE CLEARLY STATED TLJ was not just his project, he DID not drive everything. So the people that say Rian Johnson Killed Star Wars are incorrectly attributing a multiple person process to one man.- Some of the Bombs dropped on First Order at the start had messages from the resistance on them including "Han says Hi"- Holdo was originally going to be in a Grey Military Outfit but Rian Johnson wanted her outfit to look more feminine and balletic. Deliberately being different to what you would expect from a military general-- so people that complain about how she looks- that look she has was deliberately done to break the expectations of what she would be (iron grey general butting heads with Poe) and he wanted her to deliberately stand out so much.- The Evil First Order BB-8 was designed to look more imperial and evil and the artists' nickname/name for it was BB-HATE- The Resistance Hanger was deliberately designed to be small and low, so it could contain the blast and was a better way to funnel the blast towards Poe by rounding off the walls- C3PO costume was redesigned so it took Anthony Daniels 8 minutes to get into whilst previously for Force Awakens it took much longer. This was partly due to Rian Johnson wanting to go back to a more classical look.- Poe watching the resistance be blown up was deliberately to frame it so he is watching everything fall apart all around him and he is losing everything in that moment.- Lots of the Sets in TLJ are multipurpose sets-- Snoke's Throne Room was also used as the set for Resistance base at the end- Character Arcs - Finn arc was him and Poe on Canto Blight but then Johnson felt it was boring, no tension between the two. So he wanted to bring in someone that could collide with Finn more. Someone that could challenge him and push him. Rose essentially then fills this role as (Johnson puts it) the angel of Finn's shoulder whilst DJ is the devil. Rose was designed to serve Finn's arc like how Holdo and Leia were to serve Poe's arc and how Kylo and Luke serve Rey's Arc.- Gareth Edwards when doing his Cameo made a joke that the battle on Crait looked like Rogue One (which the artists said to him- no it didn't [laughs] is in this segment so they were all having fun)- Artists Idea for the utter wreck of ships at the end in the battle of Crait for the Resistance essentially the artists say it was meant to be a ying-yang thing with the First Order who have these highly advanced and sleek and working tech against resistances completely garbage vehicles. So with all their designing they had this whole ying-yang approach- First Order Walkers in Crait were deliberately designed to have anti-tow cable because Rian Johnson wanted them to have developed walkers and tech that countered tow cables. So you have the old walkers and then these bigger walkers that were meant to be gorillas in armour. It was based on historical thinking of how Germans and Russians would build bigger tanks to fight each other.- Kylo Ren's fighter was based partly on his shuttle but meant to be an evolution of Tie Fighters- A giant walker or "aircraft carrier of walkers" that would be dropped on the planet which would then unleash smaller walkers and all these tie fighters was also considering in the end fight when it was still above a thin reflect lake (which then became a salt plain)- The mini death star cannon was inspired by huge historical guns designed by Germans etc.- The land going red on Crait was meant to be a PG-13 way of doing blood spilling in war, that the actual land starts to reflect the blood loss of the battle. The land actually bleeds for the dead basically-- in imagery.- All of them thought fans would adore the film because they wanted to do what they remembered as children with Star Wars, all that excitement and wonder but also wanted to set the stage for something new, a new world. via /r/StarWars https://ift.tt/2G4MRnJ
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