'Star Wars': Adam Driver Compares 'Episode VIII' to 'Empire Strikes Back'

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” star Adam Driver is once again teasing the script for “Episode VIII,” this time comparing it to “The Empire Strikes Back.”

“It’s great. It’s similar to how ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ has a different tone,” he told Collider. “For that people always go ‘oooh, it’s dark’ but I don’t know that it necessarily is. It’s just different in tone in a way that I think is great and necessary but also very clear. [Director Rian Johnson] trusts [that] his audience is ready for nuance and ambiguity. He’s not dumbing anything down for someone and that’s really fun to play.”

In March, the actor told Entertainment Weekly that “Episode VIII” will have a different “temperature” than “The Force Awakens” while comparing Johnson and “Force Awakens” director J.J. Abrams.

Also Read: 'Star Wars' Star Adam Driver Compares Episodes 'VII' and 'VIII': 'A Lot of That Anxiety Is Gone'

“I feel like there was so many moving pieces in the first one – just trying to solve it and set the vocabulary for what it was,” he had said.

“There’s a lot of that anxiety is gone, because people have developed a language. I think it’s more of a testament to Rian coming into something very established and making it [his own]. I can’t wait to get on set, just because he’s so unassuming and intelligent and approachable. The script they’ve come up with is really great.”

Now, speaking to Collider, he added, “Rian is coming into something that we kind of set up and he just took it to the next level in a really great way. … He was working on [the script] while we were still working on the first one. To understand what J.J. was doing and take ownership from there is kind of a remarkable thing.”

See Video: 'Star Wars' Star Adam Driver Confirms Reason Kylo Ren Turned to the Dark Side

With “Episode VIII” hitting theaters in December 2017, Driver admitted that the “stakes are even higher” for this movie than they were for “The Force Awakens.”

12 Shots from New 'Rogue One' Trailer That Show It Shaking Up 'Star Wars' Style (Photos)

"Star Wars" is not typically known for having much of a visual style -- the movies usually look good, but also pretty vanilla. "The Force Awakens" had a little bit of visual panache, but it was also very grounded in that traditional "Star Wars" look. "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," though, is going all out in its own direction visually, and you can see that quite clearly in these shots from the new trailer that dropped Thursday night, including this one of Darth Vader.
LucasFilm
Literally just a shot of the Death Star as seen from "below." This could simply be a statement of the film's intent to visually try a bunch of new things for the franchise. Though I'm sure the film itself will give it some real meaning.
LucasFilm
This shot of Rebel troops huddling together in a transport ship is very much straight from a war movie -- and despite having that word in its title no "Star Wars" movie thus far would have fit that bill. But it does seem to be what director Gareth Edwards is going for with "Rogue One."
LucasFilm
Nobody does regular sized things next to large things like Edwards. TIE Fighters have never been as terrifying as this one facing off with Jyn Erso.
LucasFilm
Continuing with the war theme, here's a shot that would fit right in a World War II movie.
LucasFilm
We've never seen a Star Destroyer hovering in a planet's atmosphere in a film before, and this sort of ground-up look at any part of the intimidating Imperial war machine is unusual. But for "Rogue One" this sort of thing appears to be the norm.
LucasFilm
At the battle on Hoth in "The Empire Strikes Back" we saw troops on the ground taking potshots at the Imperial AT-AT walkers with blaster rifles, but the real fighting happened with Rogue Squadron's snowspeeder. Seeing one of our heroes firing a rocket launcher at one, with an over-the-shoulder perspective, then, is a super fresh new look.
LucasFilm
And when that rocket smashes into a walker's face and its head is knocked to the side because of it, that freshness is amped up to 11.
LucasFilm
This is a shot of the newly constructed Death Star eclipsing the sun. This sort of blatant visual metaphor is definitely not something we've seen much of in "Star Wars."
LucasFilm
We've seen this room, or one very much like it, before -- when Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader made Princess Leia watch as they used the Death Star to destroy her home planet of Alderaan. It was ominously lit back then, but this is a whole other level of shadowy and terrifying.
LucasFilm
There's that Edwards scale at work again, with the tiny Rebel ship caught in a massive storm.
LucasFilm
"The Force Awakens" introduced to "Star Wars" the idea of a shot that follows a starfighter through cool maneuvers, but there's a moody atmosphere here that those shots lacked. Given that we see one of the X-Wings opening its wings this is likely a stealth approach before an attack -- a scenario we've seen described in a number of "Star Wars" novels but not depicted on screen.
LucasFilm

1 of 12

Director Gareth Edwards has promised to bring his own distinctive visual style to ”Star Wars“ and you can see that in the new teaser

"Star Wars" is not typically known for having much of a visual style -- the movies usually look good, but also pretty vanilla. "The Force Awakens" had a little bit of visual panache, but it was also very grounded in that traditional "Star Wars" look. "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," though, is going all out in its own direction visually, and you can see that quite clearly in these shots from the new trailer that dropped Thursday night, including this one of Darth Vader.

View In Gallery

12 Shots from New 'Rogue One' Trailer That Show It Shaking Up 'Star Wars' Style (Photos)

7DAYFREETRIAL

7
DAY
FREE
TRIAL