To say Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a movie that sparked a lot of conversation is a bit of an understatement. Reactions to writer/director Rian Johnson’s The Force Awakens sequel were strong—there were those that unabashedly loved the intimate story Johnson chose to tell, and those that hated the film’s ambitious pushes away from the Original Trilogy and into a New Era for Star Wars. The good news for both factions is that the Star Wars: The Last Jedi Blu-ray contains a ton of bonus features that dive into every nook and cranny of this movie, answering plenty of questions along the way—for better or worse.

Aside from the must-watch feature-length documentary The Director and the Jedi (look for a full review of that on Collider soon), the crown jewel of the Blu-ray release is Johnson’s audio commentary. Fans of Johnson’s work know that he puts a lot into his audio commentaries, even recording a track for Looper that one could listen to while the film was still in theaters. Johnson delivers once again for The Last Jedi, imbuing the track with fascinating bits of trivia, insights into his thought process, and revelations of how the film changed in the script phase, during production, and in the editing room. Cinephiles will eat this one up, as will those who are dying to know everything there is about The Last Jedi.

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Image via Disney/Lucasfilm

While the film is currently available on Digital HD, it doesn’t come out on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD until March 27th. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a review copy, and I went through the audio commentary and pulled out some fascinating The Last Jedi trivia nuggets that Johnson dropped during the 152 minute track.

Now, I will say the best way to experience this is to listen to the track cold and just enjoy the conversation, but if you absolutely can’t wait I’ve hopefully provided a nice overview of the major revelations gleaned from the audio commentary. There’s also no way I could include everything, so if you read this and go listen to the commentary track, there will still be plenty of new information to be found.

So behold, a bounty of Star Wars: The Last Jedi trivia as revealed on the film’s audio commentary track by Rian Johnson.

  • The opening crawl was the first thing Rian Johnson started writing, and it was the very last thing he finished on the movie as a whole. He was sitting in the editing room at the very last minute tweaking some things, and on the track he gives a shout out to writer Craig Mazin (Identity Thief) who gave him some grammar advice on the crawl.
  • The opening fanfare is recorded all over again for each movie, and Johnson says in the mix each version gets tweaked. The Force Awakens one has a “sharper attack” to it while Johnson says for Last Jedi, they went for a warmer feel.
  • The original opening for the movie was on Finn in the dome healing suit, which would initially look like a planet before it’s revealed that it’s actually Finn. This scene is included in the deleted scenes and still appears in the movie as Finn’s introduction.
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    Image via Lucasfilm
    Actress Kate Dickey from The Witch appears in the opening scene, but Johnson reveals her The Witch co-star Ralph Ineson also appeared in The Last Jedi but his scene was cut.
  • Johnson says he “held on” to the joke with Hux at the beginning of the movie, feeling like he needed to break the ice and tell the audience upfront that it’s going to be okay to laugh with this movie. He likens the tone of the scene to a Monty Python sketch.
  • Johnson felt they didn’t need another “heavy” villain with Kylo and Snoke in the film already, so he thought it would be more useful for Hux to have a slightly different flavor in terms of villainy.
  • One of the first things Johnson came up with was having BB-8 in the guts of an X-Wing trying to fix it.
  • Further revealing his nerdiness, Johnson describes one moment in the opening sequence as Star Wars: Tokyo Drift.
  • The actor in the opening sequence that everyone thinks is James Corden is actually the film’s First Assistant Director, Jamie Christopher.
  • In preparing to make The Last Jedi, Johnson came up with a list of movies he thought would be good to draw inspiration from including Twelve O’Clock High, which would have a heavy impact on the opening bombing run.
  • They shot in Skellig Michael for three days before principal photography began, back in September 2015, where they shot Luke’s first scene and a couple of other small bits, including Rey cutting the rock in half.
  • Johnson says Luke tossing the saber is something that always made a lot of sense to him. He says the first thing he had to do was figure out why Luke was secluded on this island, when he knows there’s peril out in the galaxy and he’s exiled himself. “I knew, because it’s Luke Skywalker who I grew up with as a hero, the answer couldn’t be cowardice. So I knew the answer had to be something active, he’s not just hiding, and the answer had to be something positive, he thinks he’s doing the right thing. And that kind of led to the notion he’s come to the conclusion that the Jedi are not helping. They’re just perpetuating this cycle, so they need to go away so that the light can rise from a more worthy source.”
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    Image via Disney, Lucasfilm
    The Throne Room was Johnson’s favorite set. He says it’s all practical. They strung up a big red curtain in the background, so everything in the shot except Snoke is real.
  • Johnson says when he got the job he was really excited to work with Adam Driver, and only became more excited once he saw The Force Awakens.
  • Since this film is about getting deeper into Kylo’s head, Johnson says he wanted to find a way to get rid of the mask. So he came up with Snoke ridiculing Kylo’s mask as a symbol of his immaturity.
  • Johnson smashed the Kylo Ren helmet himself. The initial take just had it split in half, but he wanted to do another take with it smashed to bits so Johnson took his foot to it.
  • A lot of the scenes between Luke and Rey were shot in Ireland, where they constructed the Jedi Village set.
  • Johnson says he doesn’t usually like using stedicam, he prefers dolly moves, but inside the tree set they didn’t have a choice. Johnson put the stedicam on and says he will never underestimate stedicam operators again, saying he only lasted a couple minutes.
  • The original written line was not as concise as “It’s time for the Jedi to end.” He says when they cut the trailer, the trailer guys cut it down to this line and so Johnson went back and readjusted it after he saw how much better that worked.
  • The best advice Johnson got from anyone was from J.J. Abrams’ editors, who told him for every scene shoot a cutaway from BB-8 and he’ll never regret it, and he says they were right.
  • The 3-frame dissolves in the scene when Kylo is considering shooting at Leia’s ship were meant to mirror the dissolve cuts between Luke and Vader in Empire.
  • The idea of the beacon connecting Rey and Finn was an idea that came late in the writing process. Johnson was looking for a way to connect them, since they’re split apart for the film.
  • It must be pointed out that Johnson cannot get through the “Chewbacca almost eats a porg” scene without giggling.
  • Johnson’s cameo in the movie is his hand pulling the dice down in the scene when Luke goes onto the Millennium Falcon.
  • When Johnson wrote The Last Jedi, there was a scene in The Force Awakens where Han Solo pulls the dice out of his pocket and hangs them up on the Falcon. He didn’t know it had been taken out of the movie when he was writing The Last Jedi.
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    Image via Lucasfilm
    They found the original plate that they shot for the New Hope Leia hologram and were able to use it in this film.
  • Johnson says the character of Holdo evolved quite a bit, and originally was a bit more “hippy dippy,” the opposite of what you’d expect from a military leader. The character and Laura Dern's performance was tweaked throughout and during reshoots since the initial performance was “a little too spacey.”
  • Casting Kelly Marie Tran influenced the character of Rose. Johnson says originally the character was more of an Eeyore type, but Tran’s personality was infectious. The first scene between Finn and Rose was rewritten during production. Originally Rose was more suspicious of Finn, but seeing Tran’s personality, Johnson realized Rose would be excited to meet Finn and open-hearted.
  • In the script there was more Maz Kanata; she was on the cruiser and such. But during the writing phase Johnson realized he could give those character beats to other, more prominent characters. As a result he only got to work with Lupita Nyong’o for one day.
  • In writing the script, Johnson wanted Kylo and Rey to be able to talk to each other, so he thought of the idea of a new type of connection opening between them. After going through a bunch of visual ideas, he decided he wanted it to be incredibly intimate, so they just shot it like a two-shot in different locations, using film grammar. Every time they shot these scenes, the other actor was present off camera to play the scene opposite the actor who was onscreen. So Adam Driver flew to Ireland to perform, even though he wasn’t on camera in any scenes there.
  • They almost cut the shot of the baby porg out, but Johnson says every time he showed the movie to Kathy Kennedy she would giggle at that part, so he left it in.
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    Image via Lucasfilm
    The first thing Johnson wanted to see in the editing room was the Force connection scenes between Kylo and Rey.
  • The scene of Finn and Rose on the balcony when they first arrive at Canto Bight was shot during reshoots. Originally it took place with them looking out the window, but Johnson says it didn’t have the right emotional connection.
  • Johnson says in Finn’s storyline, Rose was meant to be the angel on his shoulder and DJ was meant to be the devil, influencing his outlook on the world.
  • Originally in the script there was a lot more back-and-forth between the various storylines, but in the editing process Johnson says they realized that it was detracting from the experience so they stayed with the different storylines for longer rather than constantly hopping back and forth.
  • For the flashbacks, Johnson considered showing a full training montage but figured it would be too much of a tangent to show too much, so he decided to just focus on a single moment. They shot all three flashbacks in half a day.
  • Johnson heaps a lot of praise on Benicio Del Toro’s performance, likening to his character to the fox in Pinocchio.
  • Johnson doesn’t think Kylo is lying when he tells Rey what happened between him and Luke—it’s his version of it. Johnson says Luke is the one who’s less truthful.
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    Image via Lucasfilm
    One of the first things Johnson did when he got the job was he met with Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, and Michael Arndt, but he also spent a couple of weeks with The Force Awakens production designer Rick Carter, who he describes as an unseen Yoda behind the sequel trilogy. They talked about very deep, personal things relating to the story and characters.
  • Mark Hamill came up with the idea for how the camera should reveal Yoda in the film.
  • Frank Oz was on set performing Yoda for the film. They used the original mold and tracked down the lady who painted Yoda’s original eyes to paint his eyes for The Last Jedi. Oz gave notes, as a filmmaker himself, to Johnson about the film and editing the Yoda scene.
  • The point of DJ asking for the medallion and then giving it back started with an idea from Benicio Del Toro himself. Johnson said he was curious about the notion of a scoundrel with a heart of gold, but wanted to portray a scoundrel who doesn’t turn “good” in the end—who sticks to his guns. But the medallion twist allows the audience to invest emotionally in the character.
  • The inspiration for the Throne Room set was an Anthony Minghella-directed production of Madame Butterfly.
  • Johnson says every time Laura Dern fired the gun she said “pew!”, which you can see in the movie.
  • The final scene between Holdo and Leia was rewritten on set by Johnson, Fisher, and Dern, with a lot of input from the actresses.
  • In designing the Pratetorian Guards, Johnson knew from the beginning they would have to fight so their costumes were designed to move.
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    Image via Lucasfilm
    Johnson and Driver talked extensively about what Kylo is thinking in the Throne Room scene: “He comes into this moment, he knows that Snoke can read his intentions if not his mind so he can’t be thinking about an opportunity. He’s gotta be in the moment here, but at the same time he’s looking for one… That’s his intent from the moment he walks in the scene is to betray Snoke, but he doesn’t know quite how to do it and he sees this opportunity and takes it.”
  • Johnson says the key for the “Join Me” scene is you had to feel an emotional appeal from Kylo, and Driver delivers that tremendously.
  • The shot of Finn surprisingly coming up and hitting Phasma in the face is an homage to a similar scene in Back to the Future: Part II.
  • By the end of The Last Jedi, Johnson wanted Kylo to come into his own “as a sort-of villain,” but one the audience can emotionally related to.
  • Rey flying the Falcon through the crystal caverns is an homage to the original Star Tours.
  • Johnson knew he wanted to have a Luke/Leia scene in the movie. On the day of shooting the scene, he says it felt like church. Everyone was quiet and respectful. Carrie came up with the line about her hair, and Mark came up with the idea of kissing her head.
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    Image via Lucasfilm
    On the idea to bring Luke back as a projection: “Story-wise I knew I wanted him to come back, but I also knew that meant he was gonna confront Kylo. I knew that I couldn’t kill Kylo and I didn’t want Kylo to kill Luke. Luke was gonna die at the end of this film, but I wanted it to be peaceful. I wanted it to be the opposite of Han’s death, I wanted it to be peaceful and a win basically, in its own way. On his terms.”
  • Johnson says the scene they worked and tweaked in the edit the most was Luke’s death scene.
  • The shot of Kylo and the troopers entering the base at the end was a callback to a shot George Lucas did in Revenge of the Sith.
  • The idea of the dice disappearing at the end didn’t come about until they got into the editing room.
  • Johnson on the ending: “It was something that you could very easily lop this off and end with the Falcon, that would’ve been a good ending. This felt really important to me for a lot of reasons. Luke, during the course of this film, has basically made the decision to take on the mantle of being Luke Skywalker, and being kind of like a symbol of hope. And so to end it with the notion of, ‘Luke hasn’t just saved this group of 20 resistance fighters, he has done what we said we wanted him to do from the crawl, he wanted to reignite hope in the galaxy.’ And that expressed through these kids who are playing with a Luke Skywalker action figure and looking up at the stars and thinking, ‘I can go up there and join the good fight.’ That’s what these movies are hopefully all about.”
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