‘Star Wars’ Fans Are Tired of Rian Johnson and His Rumored Trilogy Being Called ‘Controversial’
Star Wars is a franchise that has spawned a lot of fan devotion over the years.
Beginning with the first movie, released in 1977, millions of fans all over the world have gathered in movie theaters and online forums to discuss different aspects of the films, and all the great characters created by George Lucas and his associates. Still, with as much love as the movies get, they have also fallen under fire over the years for various reasons.
In 2017, the fandom was rocked to its core when Star Wars: The Last Jedi was released — and while it received good reviews from critics, fans were divided, both on the film itself, and on the movie’s director, Rian Johnson.
Rian Johnson is a visionary director
Prior to his work on The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson was best known for films like The Brothers Bloom and Looper — unusual movies that defied any one genre and encouraged audiences to pore over the little details committed to the screen. He also received critical acclaim for his directing work in the hit television series Breaking Bad. When it was announced that Johnson would be the man to direct the latest installment of the Star Wars franchise, many fans were thrilled.
Ultimately, however, when The Last Jedi was released in December 2017, it rocked the fanbase to its core and went down in history as possibly the most divisive Star Wars film ever to be released.
Why did ‘The Last Jedi’ get a lot of hate from the ‘Star Wars’ fanbase?
There are a lot of reasons why fans are unhappy with the way that Rian Johnson directed The Last Jedi. Many were upset with the character arc of Luke Skywalker, complaining that the grumpy, reclusive man onscreen bore little resemblance to the Luke Skywalker who had become immortal in films like A New Hope and Return of the Jedi.
Still others were angry with the character trajectory of Rey, and many complained about some of the story choices. All in all, while Johnson’s film pleased a number of fans, a very vocal portion of the fanbase were all over social media — and to this day, over three years after the film’s release, it continues to make waves.
‘Star Wars’ fans want Rian Johnson to no longer be considered controversial
Around the time of The Last Jedi’s release, it was announced that Rian Johnson would be developing his very own Star Wars trilogy. In spite of the backlash after The Last Jedi, it seems as though the trilogy is still happening — even if the project is, according to Johnson, somewhat stalled at the moment.
There are those who don’t want to see Johnson involved in any further Star Wars movies — but as some fans on Reddit recently discussed, there’s no good reason why Johnson doesn’t deserve a shot at a new trilogy.
“I’m personally convinced that Kathleen Kennedy is such a big fan of RJ that she absolutely wants him to do his trilogy. However, she’s aware that he’s controversial right now and maybe wants to wait a few years for things to cool down so that audiences can give RJ a second chance,” one fan commented.
Another responded by stating, “he’s controversial because everyone keeps saying he’s controversial. He really isn’t. If we would all stop pedaling the negative publicity that the fandom menace has been fabricating for the last 3 years, we would have an honest account for RJ/TLJ… that’s it’s a movie that a small minority really hate but the majority really love.”
Other fans agreed, pointing out that “I also think that defenders of the film often misrepresent it in the same way that “haters” do, as some sort of critique of Luke, the Jedi, or heroism in general, and it’s none of the above.”
There’s no telling what the future holds for Rian Johnson, or his new trilogy, but it seems as though fans might be ready to give him another shot.
