Key Change: Rian Johnson

Wagner’s ‘Das Rheingold’ LISTEN: APPLE · SPOTIFY · AMAZON · OTHER APPS My guest today is director Rian Johnson, which is exciting for me, because I’ve been a huge fan of his ever since seeing his first feature film, Brick, in 2006. Since then, he’s made six more feature films, including Looper in 2012; Star […]
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December 10, 2025December 10, 2025 by Mary Dolan

Key Change: Rian Johnson

Wagner’s ‘Das Rheingold’

LISTEN: APPLE · SPOTIFY · AMAZON · OTHER APPS

My guest today is director Rian Johnson, which is exciting for me, because I’ve been a huge fan of his ever since seeing his first feature film, Brick, in 2006. Since then, he’s made six more feature films, including Looper in 2012; Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017; the murder mystery Knives Out in 2019; and his most recent movie, another in the Knives Out series, Wake Up Dead Man, which is already out in theaters, and comes to Netflix on December 12. I talked to Rian about a piece of music that had a profound impact on him, which was the overture to Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner.

footnotes:

“Kill the Wabbit”

“La Traviata”

Focus Features

The Brothers Bloom

Opéra Bastille

Ring Cycle

J. R. R. Tolkien

J. J. Abrams

Terrence Malick

Nathan Johnson

Bayreuth Festival Theatre

Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music by Alex Ross

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[Original source](https://songexploder.net/rian-johnson)