Happy Life Day Eve! Your festive edition of The Week in Star Wars features a lot of comments from Rian Johnson about Star Wars: The Last Jedi, several articles on the film, a fan’s petition for it to be removed from canon, Episode IX updates and more…
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is finally here [read another review of the movie here], and it has certainly split opinions. Someone who is keen to talk about the film is director Rian Johnson, who has been doing the media rounds to promote the film. So, here’s what he’s had to say. He talks about Luke Skywalker’s role here, a deleted scene with Rey and Luke here, Supreme Leader Snoke’s role in the film here, a certain character using the force here, a surprise cameo here, how the movie is like a period piece here, the broom kid here, keeping Carrie Fisher’s role in the movie in tact here, Luke Skywalker again here, why Lando isn’t in the movie here, and Captain Phasma here. Phew…
…In some good news for the movie, Star Wars: The Last Jedi has already passed $500 million at the worldwide box office…
…So as we said earlier, there has been some backlash to the film from a certain group of fans who think Johnson has ruined Star Wars forever. One group of fans have even started a petition to remove it from canon so Disney can do Episode VIII again. In an interview with Business Insider Johnson spoke about the fan criticism saying, “I’m aware through my own experience that, first of all, the fans are so passionate, they care so deeply — sometimes they care very violently at me on Twitter. But it’s because they care about these things, and it hurts when you’re expecting something specific and you don’t get it from something that you love. It always hurts, so I don’t take it personally if a fan reacts negatively and lashes out on me on Twitter. That’s fine. It’s my job to be there for that. Like you said, every fan has a list of stuff they want a Star Wars movie to be and they don’t want a Star Wars movie to be. You’re going to find very few fans out there whose lists line up.” You can read more of that interview here…
…One outspoken person about the film has been its star Mark Hamill, and he’s spoken out against the film again in a new interview saying this version of Luke Skywalker isn’t his Luke Skywalker. “Rian needed me to be a certain way to make the ending effective,” he said. “That’s the crux of my problem. Luke would never say that. I’m sorry. Well, in this version, see I’m talking about the George Lucas Star Wars, this is the next generation of Star Wars, so I almost had to think of Luke as another character. Maybe he’s Jake Skywalker. He’s not my Luke Skywalker, but I had to do what Rian wanted me to do because it serves the story well. But listen, I still haven’t accepted it completely.” In short, “George Lucas didn’t direct it so it’s not Star Wars“. Read more here…
…Well, at least Ron Howard liked it…
…In the article department, Anghus Houvouras has penned one asking whether Star Wars should have brought back Han, Luke and Leia, Ricky Church looks at the ‘failure’ of the movie, and Neil Calloway tries to find a middle ground in the film’s criticism…
…Looking forward now in the timeline, and it has been revealed that J.J Abrams has pitched his take on Star Wars: Episode IX along with the working title. Read more here…
…And finally, Paul Bettany has revealed that Solo: A Star Wars Story is like a gangster movie, and that Ron Howard reshot more of the movie than originally planned. “I think he went in and he was like a laser, working out what needed to be done when he looked at the footage,” he told The Playlist. “And then, as things moved on, everybody felt so secure with him. And they gave him more. He reshot a lot more than was originally intended.”
That’s all for this week – may the Force be with you.
Luke Owen is the former Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth, a presenter for WrestleTalk, and the author of Lights, Camera, GAME OVER!: How Video Game Movies Get Made. You can follow him on Twitter @ThisisLukeOwen.
Originally published December 24, 2017. Updated November 30, 2022.
