While the events and tone of The Last Jedi were ultimately far different than The Empire Strikes Back, director Rian Johnson admitted that there were some narrative influences, during an interview on the Bullseye with Jesse Thorn podcast.
IGN reporter Scott Collura tracked down a rare copy of the 1980 book Once upon a galaxy: A journal of the making of Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back by Alan Arnold, which features an interview with Empire Strikes Back director Irving Kirshner.
“The Force Awakens was the first chapter in our trilogy, Empire Strikes Back was the second chapter.
While the director wouldn’t confirm that this line was inspired by this interview from the book, he did reveal that he was given a copy of the book during production of The Last Jedi.