‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’: ‘Ben Swolo,’ Anti-Han Solo, Making Poe Less Perfect And Other New Revelations

Making Star Wars: The Last Jedi was no doubt a thrilling ride for writer-director Rian Johnson, who shared the experience to fans in the commentary included in the home release of the film.

Johnson revealed exciting secrets and stories about what was going on behind the scenes while filming the Star Wars: The Force Awakens sequel.

For those who are yet to pick up their copy of Star Wars: The Last Jedi home release, the well-known Star Wars watcher and YouTuber Star Wars Explained shared some of the most intriguing takeaways from it.

One of the parts of the film that fans did not see coming and surely want to know more about is the Force bond between Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Rey (Daisy Ridley).

Johnson said in the commentary that the idea behind the Force connection came from the need to make the characters communicate with each other without any physical confrontation or a hostage situation, which was the case in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Both Driver and Ridley were present for each other’s Force bond scenes in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. That meant that the former was also on the Ahch-To sets while the latter was on the Supremacy sets.

The Star Wars: The Last Jedi scene that made a lot of fans ship “Reylo” harder–the one where a shirtless Kylo Ren was told by Rey to put on a cowl or anything to cover himself but to no avail–was shot in the midnight while it was freezing cold.

Driver was there for the filming of that scene as well, but unfortunately for fans of the pairing, it was not revealed in the commentary if he had to be shirtless for the whole thing too although the weather might have made that a bit challenging for him. Either way, because of that scene, Kylo Ren was dubbed by fans as “Ben Swolo.”

Rian Johnson also revealed that the “It’s time for the Jedi to end” bombshell dropped by Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in the first trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi that was shown at the Star Wars Celebration is actually part of a longer and more convoluted scene that was strategically edited for the trailer, but the reaction it got made him go with that shortened and more straightforward scene instead.

As for those who were disappointed about DJ (Benicio Del Toro) double-crossing Finn (John Boyega) and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) during their Canto Bight mission, the part with him returning the latter’s pendant was purposely made for misdirection as Johnson always envisioned the hacker as a scoundrel that sticks to his guns and the epitome of the “anti-Han Solo.”

Another intentional element in Star Wars: The Last Jedi Johnson squeezed in is the shot of Kylo Ren entering the Rebel base in Crait with a group of First Order troopers, which was made to mirror that of Anakin making his way to the Jedi temple with Clone troopers in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, although this one was more of a nod to the prequels than anything else.

Johnson also revealed that Poe’s (Oscar Isaac) story in the film was about a hero becoming a leader. His actions in the sequel was the result of the writer-director’s desire to crack the seemingly perfect image of him established in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Other revelations from the commentary include the opening crawl in Star Wars: The Last Jedi being the first thing Johnson wrote in the film and the last to be done in production, and that Paige (Veronica Ngo) popping up in the bomber bridge was the very first scene they shot during principal photography.

It is also revealed that the stunt double for General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) broke his nose in the scene where he was being thrown around by Snoke (Andy Serkis) at the Star Destroyer bridge.

The Star Wars: The Last Jedi director himself was also the one who shattered Kylo Ren’s helmet to smithereens since he wanted to know what it looked like in pieces after they shot a scene where it was just dented.

Fans can learn more about the happenings in Star Wars: The Last Jedi behind the scenes (such as how a scene where Laura Dern as Vice Admiral Holdo saying “pew” as she fired a blaster ended up in the final cut) by picking up the home release, which is now available for sale.