I love this. Why? Because it makes certain angry Star Wars fans blow their fucking lids. Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi was released in 2017 and while earning a whopping $1.3B at the box office and critical acclaim, it is also the most polarizing Star Wars film ever. And those who hate it REALLY hate it and they hate Johnson, too, leading to years of feverish argument of which the filmmaker has happily joined. But you know what? He actually is prouder of the film now than he was back then.
In an interview with Empire, Johnson admitted he is “even more proud of it five years on.” He added, “When I was up at bat, I really swung at the ball.”
The middle chapter between two JJ Abrams chapters of the trilogy, The Last Jedi took a different perspective on Luke Skywalker and the Jedi than traditionalists were prepared for. Johnson wasn’t content to simply look at them as heroes, but to deconstruct what being a Jedi really meant and to take a hard look at their actual accomplishments.
“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. 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.”
At the heart of a lot of the controversy was the final fate of Skywalker, who sacrificed himself to save the Rebels and become the symbol of hope he was always meant to be. Some Star Wars fans couldn’t handle it, but Johnson sees that moment as so much more…
“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.”
Any divisiveness didn’t hurt Johnson in the long run. He followed that up with Knives Out, which earned more than $300M worldwide and has a sequel, Glass Onion, opening this December on Netflix. Johnson was to direct a new trilogy of Star Wars films, and while they haven’t been officially canceled they do not appear to be happening.
