no mourners, no funerals

Adam Driver: It was an interesting process that I have never done before to be able to tell a lot story without actually being seen. And then what is the difference when he takes off his mask? What do you find? Instead of this menacing figure that you’re used to, someone that’s kind of more moustache-twirly and obvious, that it was actually someone more human. […] There’s nothing more powerful than genetics. If you really imagine the stakes of him in his youth having all these special powers and having your parents be absent during that process, with their own agendas, equally as selfish. He’s lost in the world that he was raised in and feels like he was abandoned by the people that he’s closest with. He’s angry because of that, I think. And he has a huge grudge on his shoulders.

J.J. Abrams: [Han and Leia] had this kid who was born with equal parts good and evil. He is someone who is broken. […] But it’s more than just having a bad seed as a kid. Snoke had targeted this kid, knew that this kid was going to be incredibly powerful in the Force and wanted him as an ally.

The downfall of Star Wars rests with producers at Disney who somehow convinced themselves (and us) that a blockbuster trilogy didn’t need the presence of any kind of overarching narrative architect to ensure at least a modicum of tonal or philosophical consistency. It was an act of pure hubris—a supremely corporate, unearned sense of confidence that IP and branding mattered far more than a carefully planned story. In the end, “trilogy” isn’t even the right word, because it implies the existence of three films that fit together in a planned, form-fitting way, as three chapters of a single story. These films? They aren’t a trilogy. They’re more like direct rebukes of each other.

- JIM VOREL