WATCH: New image and behind-the-scenes video for Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Seriously, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is less than two months away (December 15th!)… how did this happen?!

To get us all excited we have a brand new image of Mark Hamill as Luke with (above) and an awesome new behind the scenes from USA Today featuring Hamill, the late Carrie Fisher, director Rian Johnson and many more actors and Star Wars goodness; it’s at the bottom of the page, go watch it.

But before you do, in the same article Johnson talks about the movie and reveals some snippets at what we can expect to see: “When I first read the script of The Force Awakens, I was like, “I feel like I know these characters instantly.” And now we get to kind of put them through a meat grinder. And for me, part of that meant that we had to make things as hard on each of them as possible: At least part of the movie, they don’t have their friends around. They’ve got to figure things out for themselves. They’ve got to be faced with whatever the toughest thing each of them can be faced with, and they’re not going to have their buddy there next to them to get them out of it, necessarily.”

So, while The Force Awakens bore many similarities to A New Hope, it really sounds like The Last Jedi is going to be this trilogy’s Empire Strikes Back and just as that movie saw the growth of Luke and Han, this one focuses on developing characters too: “[Leia sees Poe as one day being leader of the Resistance but] Poe’s got to grow. She definitely saw that potential in him and in The Last Jedi, we dig into that more. We’ve seen how heroic he is and now we’re going to see him challenged in terms of stepping up to the next level. It takes more than heroics to be a leader, or so I’m told.”

As for knowing the movie will feature Carrie Fisher’s last performance, the director knows it’s going to take a toll on the fans: “It’s incredibly emotional. For the next few months, seeing the fans … process the loss and celebrate her as Leia one last time, it’s going to be intense. I think it’s going to be really sad but really joyful, I hope. She really kicks (butt) as General Leia, and I’m happy for that.”

 

We hope no matter what else this movie delivers, that it gives Carrie – and Leia – the send-off she deserved.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theaters on December 15th. The film is written and directed by Rian Johnson and stars Daisy Ridley as Rey, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, John Boyega as Finn, Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, Carrie Fisher as Leia Organa, Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico, Laura Dern as Amilyn Holdo, Benicio Del Toro as DJ, and Lupita Nyong’o as Maz Kanata.

Source: USA Today