The writer-director looks back on his Star Wars movie and talks the power of Luke Skywalker's myth in a major new Empire interview.
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"I'm even more proud of it five years on," he says. "When I was up at bat, I really swung at the ball." The film, he says, is not just a
Star Wars movie – it's a movie about
Star Wars, and what it means to fans (himself included). "I think it's impossible for any of us to approach
Star Wars without thinking about it as a myth that we were raised with, and how that myth, that story, baked itself into us and affected us," Johnson explains. "The ultimate intent was not to strip away – the intent was to get to the basic, fundamental power of myth. And ultimately I hope the film is an affirmation of the power of the myth of
Star Wars in our lives."
The final images of the movie, to me, are not deconstructing the myth of Luke Skywalker, they're building it, and they're him embracing it," the director explains. "They're him absolutely defying the notion of, 'Throw away the past,' and embracing what actually matters about his myth and what's going to inspire the next generation. So for me, the process of stripping away is always in the interest of getting to something