ikiOoZH.jpg

"I wasn't interested in explaining where he came from," says director Rian Johnson of the First Order's boss.

Fans hoping that this December's Star Wars: The Last Jedi will shed some light on the backstory of the new bad guy Supreme Leader Snoke are in for a disappointment, with director Rian Johnson saying that, as far as he's concerned, there's nothing really interesting exploring the character's past.

"We got the whole story of Palpatine’s rise to power in the prequels, but in the original films he's exactly what he needs to be, which is just 'The Emperor,'" Johnson told Empire in its latest issue, which features a cover story on the new movie. "[The Emperor is] a dark force: the scary thing behind the thing. That was entirely how I approached Snoke. I wasn't interested in explaining where he came from or telling his history, except where it serves this story.”

So, if The Last Jedi isn't going to concentrate on Snoke, who is the bad guy at the center of events? No surprise, it's Adam Driver's Kylo Ren.

"Star Wars boils down to the transition from adolescence into adulthood. That’s the heart of these films and Rey is most obviously the one that hangs on. But it’s also Kylo," Johnson explained. "In the originals you project entirely onto Luke, while Vader is the scary other — he’s the minotaur. The fascinating thing about Kylo and Rey is that they’re two sides of something. We can all relate to Kylo: to that anger of being in the turmoil of adolescence and figuring out who he’s going to be as a man; dealing with anger and wanting to separate from his family. He’s not Vader — at least, he’s not Vader yet — and that’s something I really wanted to get into."

No love for General Hux, then…? Perhaps his fortunes could turn around when Star Wars: The Last Jedi reaches theaters Dec. 15.

Source