You'd think the hype for Star Wars Episode IX couldn't be any bigger, but Kevin Smith has seen the film in production, and he was completely blown away. The director recently spoke about visiting the set of the movie currently in production and while he, of course, couldn't go into specifics, Smith told GMA Day that seeing the movie in production, and one performance in particular, brought him to tears. According to Smith...
J.J.'s doing the lord's work. This movie looks fantastic. It's a year away, but man, it looks fantastic. I wept on set because I saw somebody give a career-best performance. Somebody I've seen in these movies before. I rolled a tear, it was so darn powerful. Biggest set I've ever seen in my life. The dude's not directing a movie. It's like he's directing a small country.
Kevin Smith tells GMA Day that he had to sign a pile of non-disclosure agreements, and so, of course, he doesn't tell us who it was that gave this career-best performance. The only hint we have is that it's not a character new to the franchise, though that still leaves a lot of ground to cover.
It could be Mark Hamill, we know that the Luke Skywalker actor will be in the movie, despite that the fact that his character died in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Beyond that, it could be any of the newer characters, from Daisy Ridley to John Boyega and beyond. Perhaps it's Billy Dee Williams' Lando Calrissian. He also will be returning to the franchise in Episode IX and has had a career long enough to be able to call something a "career-best performance." It seems unlikely Smith would use that sort of a phrase for somebody like Daisy Ridley, she has so much of her career left in front of her.
Needless to say. this sort of reaction is exactly what fans have been hoping to hear. While the reaction to Star Wars: The Last Jedi was somewhat divisive, regardless of which side you fall on, if you're a fan of Star Wars then you want the final episode of the new trilogy to be something special, and Kevin Smith certainly makes it sounds like that's exactly what we're going to get.
Smith not only praises this one performance but also J.J. Abrams work as the director of the film. He praises the director's ability to manage the massive set that he saw. Smith is used to directing TV episodes or much smaller films, so seeing Star Wars was something else, even for him.
We have almost exactly one year until Star Wars Episode IX debuts in theaters. There's a lot that needs to be done in the next 12 months, but excitement is only going to grow between now and then. The new Star Wars trilogy comes to an end December 20, 2019.
