Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Everything We Know So Far

9. It's 100% Rian Johnson's

Aside from the simple fact that 'it's Star Wars', one of the biggest reasons Episode VIII is so exciting is the presence of Rian Johnson. He's shown his sci-fi chops in Looper, filmmaking skill in Brick, and delivered three incredible episodes of one of the greatest TV shows of all time, Breaking Bad.

Johnson is both directing and writing the film by himself, a rare move in a franchise where collaboration has often produced the best results (Lucas did write and direct the original, but then also did the same on The Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith).

However, Johnson now is a better prospect than Lucas at the time of the prequels, and it's intriguing to think about the direction he'll take things in - and reassuring to hear it's all his vision, as per Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy:

"When Rian came in and started writing his script, he started from scratch, other than knowing what we had done in Episode VII and projecting out where it was going. He then sat down and put pen to paper, and it’s 100 percent him.”