Far out: could Rian Johnson be the most radical Star Wars director so far?

http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2014/jun/23/rian-johnson-star-wars-episode-viii-director

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If George Lucas's dreadful Star Wars prequels signalled that the fantasy saga which helped signal the golden dawn of the blockbuster era had finally turned to the dark side, we are starting to see signs that fans may once again be entitled to a new sense of hope. Reports suggest that Looper's Rian Johnson is set to write and direct the second film in Disney's revival of the iconic space opera, a decision which (if confirmed) suggests there truly has been a seismic shift in the Force since the studio bought all rights to the long-running film series in October 2012.

When JJ Abrams was named director of the forthcoming Star Wars: Episode VII, it only came as a surprise to observers because the American film-maker had previously been in charge of the rival Star Trek film series. Few questioned the Mission: Impossible III director's credentials to relaunch the saga because he had a proven track record as a big-budget movie-maker.

Since then we've seen Godzilla's Gareth Edwards and Chronicle's Josh Trank appointed to take on two of Disney's planned Star Wars "spin-off" origins movies, which could centre on classic figures such as Yoda and Han Solo. As these are two of the hottest young genre directors working in Hollywood today, few blinked an eyelid. After all, with the studio planning a new Star Wars movie in cinemas every year it needs to think radically as it builds an ideas factory on an unprecedented scale.

Yet somehow, Johnson's reported appointment to Episode VIII – he will also pen a treatment for the follow-up – comes out of the blue. This is a film-maker whose previous movies have been leftfield joys rather than mainstream box-office big beasts. His debut, 2005's Brick, is a sort-of Raymond Chandleresque high school detective movie, Edwards ingeniously spotting that the goldfish bowl intensity of cooler-than-thou teenage existence perfectly mirrors the stylised swagger of classic film noir.

Looper, from 2012, is a brooding time-travel thinkpiece which achieves the rare feat of creating a vision of post-superpower future America as cut through with verisimilitude as anything in Blade Runner. Made for just $30m, the film performed decently at the box office and drew almost universally red-hot reviews, yet it comes from a very different place to Abrams's breezily commercial, action-heavy Star Trek. (For the record, Johnson is also responsible for directing two of the greatest episodes of Breaking Bad ever filmed, Fly and Ozymandias).

In many ways, the closest parallel for Disney's appointment might be Warner Bros' decision to hand the keys to Batman Begins over to Britain's Christopher Nolan a decade ago. Back then the caped crusader was coming off a period of big-screen ignominy in the wake of two execrable Joel Schumacher outings, so the decision to hire a maverick outsider made a lot of sense. Another example might be the same studio's hiring of Mexico's Alfonso Cuarón to take on the third Harry Potter film, The Prisoner of Azkaban, often considered the best movie in the fantasy saga. Yet Johnson's appointment bears even closer comparison to the early adventurousness of Disney-owned Marvel, which brightly handed the keys to Iron Man, Thor and The Avengers to Jon Favreau, Kenneth Branagh and Joss Whedon when it might have plumped for far safer choices.

What kind of movie might Johnson's Episode VIII turn out to be? All we really know is that this will be the point at which the iconic trio from Lucas's original trilogy, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia, are largely jettisoned in favour of a younger generation of lightsaber-wielding protagonists. More so even than Abrams's Episode VII, it will be the make or break instalment of Disney's brave new Star Wars universe.

The temptation is to hope that Johnson can take the saga into darker and more cerebral territory, though we should perhaps not expect anything too radical. While this new wave of Star Wars films are being built from new and exciting materials, the final mould within which they are placed will remain fixed. Disney learned from the shock of seeing Pixar's creator-driven CGI animated movies overtake its own formulaic hand-drawn musicals at the 1990s box office that employing bland hack film-makers ultimately leads to dead ends. But that does not mean the studio is about to give a maverick director like Johnson the full keys to its $4.05bn investment in Star Wars: expect the space saga to remain a producer-driven series like the James Bond films, where each new director is allowed to chip away lightly at the 007 mythos without ever transforming the suave British spy's overall shape.

It is Abrams who will build the new Star Wars mould, which looks likely to draw on the old-school style of the original trilogy while jettisoning the computerised effects and insipid interplanetary vistas of the later prequels. In many ways it is Edwards and Trank who will have the greater leeway to move the saga into genuinely fresh territory, since their spin-off movies need not impact on the main story being told.

Yet Johnson's appointment should be welcomed nonetheless. Fans have often wondered what Return of the Jedi might have looked like if Lucas had succeeded in his efforts to convince one David Lynch to take charge three decades ago. The Looper director may not be quite such an offbeat choice (though in fairness, neither was Lynch in 1983) but his appointment is about as far out on a limb as Star Wars is ever going to get. And for that, we should all be swinging our lightsabers with genuine gusto.

• Interview: Rian Johnson