Adam Driver, who will return as Kylo Ren in Star Wars: Episode 8, compared the script to Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back in a September interview with Collider. His comparison was narrowly tailored, describing Episode 8 as different tonally from The Force Awakens, similar to the change in tone from Star Wars to The Empire Strikes Back:
“It’s similar to how The Empire Strikes Back has a different tone. For that people always go ‘ooh, 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. [Rian Johnson] trusts his audience is ready for nuance and ambiguity. He’s not dumbing anything down for someone and that’s really fun to play.”
But Driver’s narrowly tailored critique of the Star Wars: Episode 8 script was mutated in the online hype chamber into a bigger beast, birthing speculation that Episode 8 would be “dark” like Empire, or even a plot retread, similar to The Force Awakens’ soft reboot storytelling.
Driver wants you to know that’s not the case. Speaking with Vanity Fair, Driver said, “What I said was the tone of it was different. I didn’t say it was going to be in the vein. I was using [ Empire ] as an example, so, poor example.”
“Next time I should say ‘I’m trying to think of another sequel to a movie that’s good.’ When I read the script it was not what I expected, in the best of ways.”
So back to square one, Star Wars: Episode 8 plot prognosticators doing deep reads of The Empire Strikes Back motifs.
