Rian Johnson Won’t Let Last Jedi Backlash Affect New Star Wars Trilogy, but He Probably Shouldn’t Write It All Off

From #SXSW 👉 Here’s director @rianjohnson on whether fan reaction to #TheLastJedi is influencing the way he’s approaching those new #StarWars movies he’s working on, via @Fandango
Full interview 👉 https://t.co/Qyrl85LAMn pic.twitter.com/LaUqWLvPEg

— ErikDavis (@ErikDavis) March 22, 2018

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Director Rian Johnson, who’s embarking on a new journey to create an entirely new Star Wars story in his very own trilogy, isn’t wrong that Star Wars movies—and every other piece of Star Wars media—tend to receive a very strong response. That was certainly the case with Last Jedi, with a huge amount of criticism, warranted or not, flying around the internet, but he’s not letting that interfere with the upcoming project.

He’s done a ridiculous amount of explaining for the reasoning behind different parts of the movie that fans have nitpicked, and it sounds like he’s just fine with the idea of doing that all over again. In the above clip from SXSW, Johnson says, “I feel like every Star Wars thing that ever gets made has a big, loud response because Star Wars fans are passionate and that’s what makes them awesome. I don’t think it’s possible if you’re really telling a story you care about and having it come from your heart it’s just not possible to be intellectually processing what everyone else wants. Nor would it be a healthy thing, I don’t think that’s a good way to tell a story.”

While I agree with him that there are a lot of negative Last Jedi takes that can be instantly ignored, I hope he’s not writing off all criticism whatsoever. There will always be fans who won’t like any given choice with a franchise this big, because not all fans want the same things, but there’s definitely criticism of Last Jedi out there—particularly in how it deals with women and people of color—that’s worth at least keeping in mind for the future, even if you liked (or created and stand behind, in Johnson’s case) the movie.

And it looks like Johnson will certainly be a part of Star Wars’ future, since Lucasfilm has had no reservations lately about swiftly replacing directors for the good of the franchise, and Johnson’s project is still moving forward in the face of all that backlash.

(via /Film, featured image: Disney/Lucasfilm)

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