Rian Johnson still stands behind the decisions he made while writingStar Wars: The Last Jedi.Star Warsfans were left divided by the movie that Johnson delivered in a major way. Some fans were all for the bold decisions that Johnson made, taking the franchise out of the norm and into new territory. However, there is a large section of the fan base who are still extremely disappointed with the choices he made, mainly over his vision of where the Luke Skywalker character should go.
In a new interview,Rian Johnsondiscussed the decisions he made and why he strayed from the George Lucas template when craftingThe Last Jedi. Nearly two years after its release, the movie is still hotly debated amongstStar Warsfans and Johnson is often blamed for “ruining” the franchise. However, the director still stands by his decisions. He explains.
“I think the instant you start thinking in terms of how do you not step outside of the bounds of what the original movies did, you’re not thinking the way the people who made the original movies did. They were with every movie, they were pushing it forward, with every movie they were stepping outside those bounds and pushing the characters into new, emotionally honest, but surprising places. That’s why those movies are great. That’s why they’re alive. If they had been looking at something that came before it and saying, ‘Oh, we better not do this because that is outside of this or that,’ it would’ve been different.”
Stepping out of the original mindset is always a good idea when taking on a franchise as massive asStar Wars. But, it’s a very delicate balance. J.J. Abrams was slammed by some hardcore fans for making something too familiar withThe Force Awakens, while Rian Johnson has been criticized for going too far, amongst other things. With that being said, Abrams has a major job ahead of him withThe Rise of Skywalkerand closing out the Skywalker saga in a satisfying way.
Rian Johnson is getting ready tostart work on his own Star Wars trilogy, which he is looking forward to.Game of Thronesshowrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff are also getting ready for their own trilogy, which will also take place outside of the Skywalker saga with new characters. Maybe fans will be more forgiving to Johnson when he introduces new characters and takes on something less sacred to fans.
The Rise of Skywalkerhits theaters at the end of the year andStar Warsfans are wondering how it will go on after the events ofThe Last Jedi. There is a lot to finish, so it will be interesting to see what directions he decided to take the movie. Abrams has already said hedidn’t let the backlashfrom the last movie effect how he approachedThe Rise of Skywalkerand found a lot of the backlash to be meaningless. you’re able to check out the rest of the interview with Rian Johnson over atThe Creative Processing Podcast with Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
