Star Wars Effects Supervisor Breaks Down Difference Between Rian Johnson and J.J. Abrams

Colin Trevorrow was initially expected to direct Star Wars Episode IX, but sadly, he was fired by Lucasfilm who brought back Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams. Though some would have liked The Last Jedi's Rian Johnson to return, Luacsfilm seems pretty confident with bringing back Abrams. So what can the crew say about the difference of how Johnson and Abrams work?

Practical effects supervisor Chris Corbould told ScreenRant:

"Both J.J. and Rian had their own style on each film. J.J. is a livewire of a guy – million miles an hour, you know? All ideas stream out of his head every minute of the day. Spontaneity is a big part of working with J.J. I think that reflected in Force Awakens. Rian is a slightly different character. He is very quiet, he's a very sweet man. He's methodical, he wrote the script and we pretty much shot the script, which is pretty uncommon these days. So very different styles and I think that reflected in the separate films. But both great to work with – amazing times."

With a production as big as Star Wars, you can't expect too much spontaneity on the set, but it seems that Abrams was able to make it work; he should just be careful that he doesn't get too out of the script—just like what happened to Phil Lord and Chris Miller with Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Though I was admittedly disappointed that The Force Awakens didn't bring in anything new to Star Wars, I'm crossing my fingers that Abrams tries to be riskier when it comes to Episode IX. I did love how he handled the Trek reboot, and hopefully Lucasfilm lets him be more creative this time around.

Star Wars Episode IX comes out Dec. 20, 2019.

See Also: Mark Hamill Wanted To Push Luke's Death To Star Wars: Episode IX