Star Wars: The Last Jediarrives in theaters next weekend and, in case you didn’t already know, it’s going to be thelongest movie in the franchiseto date. The cut of the movie that fans are going to see is a whopping 153 minutes, or just over two and a half hours. That’s a whole lot ofStar Warsto take in at once. However, as director Rian Johnson has revealed in a new interview, the original cut of the movie was more than three hours. Here’s what he had to say about it.
“We had a long movie from the start. It was well over three hours, the first cut… It’s much better at two and a half [hours] than it was at over three, but it was a cut I had put together, is where we started. And it was over three hours.”
Not that a lot ofStar Warsfans would have an issue sitting through athree-hour long version of The Last Jedi, but Rian Johnson feels the movie is better this way. Ultimately, less is more sometimes. As for what was cut out? Even though he feels the version of the movie we’re getting is the better version, some of his favorite stuff wound up on the cutting room floor.
“A lot of really good stuff came out in the edit. I actually just reviewed the deleted scenes we’re gonna have on the Blu-ray. There’s a bunch of, some of myfavorite scenesended up having to come out just structurally… There’s a lot of really substantial, really good scenes. There’s a couple whole sequences actually that we lifted out. It’s weirdly, and this always happens, it’s like your babies you have to kill. It’s some of my favorite stuff from the movie.”
Luckily, the eventual Blu-ray release ofStar Wars: The Last Jedinext year will allow fans to see some of this cherished footage. But what about aRian Johnson director’s cutof the latest chapter of theSkywalker saga? Don’t get your hopes up, as Johnson says the cut of the movie being released is his director’s cut.
“I’m really not into [releasing an extended cut]. I feel like the cut is what it is because I feel like it’s the best version of the movie, so the ‘director’s cut’ is the movie that’s going out in theaters. All the deleted scenes, no matter how much I love them, they came out for a reason and it’s all for the greater good of the movie itself. You can watch the deleted scenes on their own, I think that’s the way to watch them, but the movie is definitely the best version of the movie I think.”
Disney and Lucasfilm gave Rian Johnson a lot of freedom withStar Wars: The Last Jediand it apparently worked out very well. Word on the movie has been only positive thus far and the studio is trusting him with a brand new trilogy ofStar Warsmovies totally unconnected to the current movies. This interview withCollideronly further serves to encourage.Star Wars: The Last Jedicould be something special. Or, at the very least, it probably won’t suck.
