Screenwriter George Nolfi reveals how George Lucas is inspiring the script for his Star Wars: New Jedi Order
movie. Daisy Ridley’s return was announced two years ago, at Star Wars Celebration 2023, but movement on Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s movie has been slow. The film lost writer Steven Knight last year; it’s taken Lucasfilm a little time to find a replacement, with The Bourne Ultimatum‘s George Nolfi joining the Star Wars project according to reports just last week.
Nolfi is currently doing the rounds promoting his latest movie, Elevation, and Film Stories took the opportunity to ask him about the New Jedi Order movie. Although it’s likely early days for Nolfi when it comes to a script, he was nevertheless willing to speak about his general approach:
“The way I approach it is, you look at what’s come before you, you look at the broad ideas of what they want to do. Meaning: Lucasfilm, Disney, Sharmeen [Obaid-Chinoy], the director, and then you do what a writer does, and try to try and put beats of a story together. Try and imagine characters, and then you present that with an understanding that it needs to honour, obviously, a long, incredible tradition.”
He then moved on to exploring George Lucas’ inspiration as a filmmaker, pointing to recurring themes that are vital to Star Wars.
“If you think about George Lucas, the six movies that he did, and the universe that he created, it’s actually very steeped in broad notions of politics. It’s not talking about today, per se, but there’s the Empire’s Nazism slash Roman Empire. The democracy of the Roman Empire collapsing and becoming an empire and the perennial story of human beings organizing themselves and against chaos, and then the tools that help human societies tamp down on chaos become oppression.
“So that is really very core to what I think George Lucas was trying to talk about. And one of the wonderful things about science fiction and Star Wars – which is more almost science fantasy or space opera – is that you can raise the deepest issues without it feeling like a philosophy class, or a political science class, or something I read in the newspaper today…
“It can be about real things, deep things.”
George Nolfi Is Right: Star Wars Has Always Had Hidden Depth
We often treat science-fiction as though it is pure escapism, but Nolfi is right; George Lucas’ Star Wars has always been political. And yet, while it is undoubtedly tied to the politics of the day, it also speaks to something much deeper. In Nolfi’s interpretation, this is because Star Wars points to a cycle between organization and chaos. As he puts it, “The tools that help human societies tamp down on chaos become oppression.” This is why the Old Republic became the Empire; it is why, tragically, the New Republic was consumed by the First Order, falling apart from within.
Even the Jedi and the Sith fit well into this interpretation. “Darkness rises, and the light to meet it,” Supreme Leader Snoke observed in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The story of Star Wars is one of unending conflict between darkness and light, between organization and chaos; Ahsoka‘s ending hinted this cycle had a beginning, but it is unlikely to have an end. Now Nolfi is weaving that into history on a galactic scale.
Our Take On Rey’s New Jedi Order Movie
We don’t know much about Rey’s New Jedi Order movie. Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy has hinted the galaxy will be struggling to decide whether it needs or wants the Jedi, given the cycle of light and dark; that makes Nolfi’s comments all the more interesting, because it sounds as though he’s suggesting the cycle is nothing to do with the Force, but rather is to do with human (or alien) nature. The comment is only a breadcrumb, but it’s the most we have for Star Wars: New Jedi Order.
Source: Film Stories (via Star Wars News Net)
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