No more Jar Jar: new Star Wars films to focus on practical effects

Director Rian Johnson, who is slated to take over the Star Wars franchise after J.J. Abrams directs Star Wars: Episode VII, has said that the new films will favor practical effects over CGI.

From The Hollywood Reporter and the Girls in Hoodies podcast:

"They're doing so much practical building for this one. It’s awesome. I think people are coming back around to [practical effects]. It feels like there is sort of that gravity pulling us back toward it. I think that more and more people are hitting kind of a critical mass in terms of the CG-driven action scene lending itself to a very specific type of action scene, where physics go out the window and it becomes so big so quick."

This is a huge relief, of course, for fans who were upset by the CG-dominant approach of the prequel trilogy. Johnson commented on the generational divide in the interview: "I probably sound like a grumpy old man talking about it. I do wonder because I think kids are growing up watching those and that’s the thing that they love now, so I don’t know whether it is a generational thing, and it could be."

Star Wars: Episode VII is due out in December 2015, with Johnson's Episode VIII to follow in 2017.