Jimmy Kimmel hosts the Star Wars: The Last Jedi cast, gets Rian Johnson to give up one measly spoiler
In an entertaining spectacle of corporate synergy, Disney-ABC property Jimmy Kimmel Live! gave over its Friday show to director Rian Johnson and most of the cast of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Such Jack Donaghy-esque product integration aside, the hour at least gave host Kimmel a chance to pepper the cast and director (eventually crammed onto the stage in two long rows of seats) with questions about the upcoming sequel (opening December 15). After some amiable goofing about at the top of the show, Kimmel only had time to ask most of the cast a single question or so.
A characteristically uncomfortable Adam Driver agreed that Han and Leia must have been pretty crap parents for Kylo Ren to turn out like he did. Laura Dern was as delightful as ever, confessing that she cried when she met childhood hero Chewbacca on set. Daisy Ridley was barfing all through Rey’s first meeting with Luke Skywalker. (From illness, not nerves.) John Boyega and Oscar Isaac are split on the vital Porg issue. (Boyega: no thanks. Isaac: “pro-Porg.”) And director Johnson admitted that he hasn’t talked to Billy Dee Williams, even though Kimmel chided that there’d be room for some Lando with a few fewer Porgs cluttering up the place.
Mark Hamill—whose late-career return to the character of Luke Skywalker continues to gift us with his endearing goofy-uncle happiness to be here—stole the show, breaking out some old-school set stories and his practiced, voice-actor’s impressions. (He claims that Harrison Ford isn’t a fan of his spot-on Ford impersonation, and that, in the pre-spoiler 1970s, he’d blithely passed around the goofy original Star Wars script with his pals.) Of course, these days, Star Wars plot points are kept more under wraps than any actual Area 51 secrets would be. (Or are they?) But Kimmel managed to get Johnson to spill one, tiny-but-precious fact about the upcoming film. (To their credit, everyone involved makes the reveal of the very first word of The Last Jedi’s script seem spontaneous rather than something carefully vetted and negotiated by Disney legal.) And that first word is…
(Turn back now unless you’re sure you can handle it.)
(Seriously, this is your last warning.)
(Okay, one more warning—but that’s it.)
It’s “We’re.”
Don’t say you weren’t warned.