Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson on 'the biggest surprise' during filming

It seems safe to suggest that many directors working today would jump at the chance of helming as big a picture as a Star Wars movie. Popular franchises mean larger budgets and subsequently more room to explore certain visions on-screen but there's also a sense of responsibility to fans that is bound to be expected.

While those things are all a given, Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has recently spoken out about the more unexpected aspects he encountered whilst filming one of the most eagerly-anticipated movies this year...

"I guess the biggest surprise was the intimacy of the process," the filmmaker told Empire. "It's huge, sure, and it's filled with pressures great and small. But at the end of the day, it boils down to the same things as the smaller films we've made: telling a story we care about with a camera and some actors. And a Wookie."

As well as discussing the things he didn't expect to feel or come across during shooting, Johnson also talked about the writing process and the difficulties he faced. He detailed how it was particular hard to nail the more conversational moments, especially the scenes which called for characters to speak specific, technical lingo.

"I found myself constantly wanting to push modern idioms into the dialogue, and sometimes that can work, but you have to be very careful," he explained. "If you go too far you can break that Star Wars spell. The other challenge is the tech talk, which has to be simultaneously complex enough to sound real and conceptually simple enough to follow. The original films were brilliant at that.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is currently slated to reach both US and UK cinemas on 15 December 2017. As well as Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, John Boyega and Daisy Ridley, other returning cast members from previous film The Force Awakens include Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie and Andy Serkis, who lent his voice to computer-generated character, villain Supreme Leader Snoke. The late Carrie Fisher is also expected to make an appearance.

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