The Last Jedi was the most controversial Star Wars movie ever…or at least until the next one. Director Rian Johnson looks back.
The Last Jedi, the second movie in Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogy, came out in 2017 and pretty much immediately became a fan flashpoint: a big chunk of people were mad at plot twists they saw as diminishing the story of Star Wars as they knew it — Luke is a crotchety hermit, Rey didn’t have some cool secret lineage, etc — and others praised the movie for taking the franchise in bold new directions.
In any case, the movie made director Rian Johnson a lightning rod for controversy, to the point where the actual film kind of got lost in the mix. Now, five years later, Johnson looked back on The Last Jedi with Empire. “I’m even more proud of it five years on,” he said. “When I was up at bat, I really swung at the ball.”
It’s clear that Johnson has spent some time thinking about how The Last Jedi fit into the greater Star Wars story, and even stories in general. “I think it’s impossible for any of us to approach Star Wars without thinking about it as a myth that we were raised with, and how that myth, that story, baked itself into us and affected us,” he said. “The ultimate intent was not to strip away – the intent was to get to the basic, fundamental power of myth. And ultimately I hope the film is an affirmation of the power of the myth of Star Wars in our lives.”
"The final images of the movie, to me, are not deconstructing the myth of Luke Skywalker, they’re building it, and they’re him embracing it. They’re him absolutely defying the notion of, ‘Throw away the past,’ and embracing what actually matters about his myth and what’s going to inspire the next generation. So for me, the process of stripping away is always in the interest of getting to something essential that really matters."
Disney followed up The Last Jedi with J.J. Abrams’ The Rise of Skywalker, which was controversial for a whole different set of reasons. As for Johnson, he brushed off The Last Jedi firestorm and went on to make Knives Out, which won praise from all quarters. Multiple sequels are now on their way to Netflix.
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