Lawrence Kasdan praises The Force Awakens, discusses the future of Star Wars

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Lawrence Kasdan may have worked on the screenplays for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI, but he never imagined that he would one day return to the world of Star Wars, but return he did; not only has Kasdan written the script (along with J.J. Abrams) for the triumphant return of Star Wars, but he'll also be penning the upcoming Han Solo spin-off film. Lawrence Kasdan spoke with The LA Times where he dismissed the extremely high box-office expectations surrounding STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS, all that matters, is that he feels good about it.

They're very high expectations. The business expectations are sort of irrelevant to me. That's going to do what it's going to do. People are going to come — does it matter where it lands in the all-time list? I think no, not at all. What does matter is, do we feel good about it and do we think we fulfilled those things we set out to do? I've seen it six or seven times, and I feel very good about that. When this movie starts, you just can't believe how dynamic and fun it is. I don't know anybody who can resist who's slightly open to it. [Director] J.J. [Abrams] just knocked it out of the park.

The future of Star Wars is a promising one, with the next episodes of the sequel trilogy already set up as well as several spin-off films which will fill in the blanks of the Star Wars universe. Lawrence Kasdan spoke on that future and seemed quite excited by how different each of the films will be.

These movies will all be so different. ["Episode VIII" director] Rian Johnson is a friend of mine — he's going to make some weird thing. If you've seen Rian's work, you know it's not going be like anything that's ever been in "Star Wars." You couldn't have three more different people than J.J., Rian and ["Episode IX" director] Colin [Trevorrow]. Those movies will have the "Star Wars" saga as their basis, but everything else will be different. Then Phil Lord and Chris Miller are going to make the Han Solo film and I can't guess what that will be like — and I'm writing it!

Kasdan revealed that Han Solo (Harrison Ford) has always been his favourite character to write dialogue for, and it all started with one moment from A NEW HOPE.

It started with the first movie, and it's really one moment when they break into the cellblock and he has this conversation with the Stormtroopers over the comlink. They question him and he runs out of answers and he shoots the comlink and says, "It was a boring conversation anyway." That's my favorite moment probably in all of "Star Wars." And that's Han.

Lawrence Kasdan will be writing the Han Solo spin-off with his son, Joe Kasdan, and although he wouldn't reveal anything at this early stage, he did provide a few hints at where the story may head, saying "he's younger in this [spinoff] movie and that's fun because you have to imagine him 10 years earlier in his early 20s. What was he like before he hardened up? Before he had some setbacks? Before he put on this cynical coat? What got him there?" The Han Solo spin-off will hopefully be a fitting conclusion for Kasdan, as he has already said that it will likely be his last time playing in the Star Wars sandbox.

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS opens in just two weeks, on December 18, 2015.