Rian Johnson certainly hasn’t been unaware of the backlash “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” has received, but he’s more than gamely defended his picture. Whether through sly subtweets or lengthy explanations, the writer/director has patiently advocated for the decisions he made in the movie, and has rightly noted that for the franchise to grow, change is necessary. However, he’s yet to discuss how the criticisms of the movie directly affected him — until now.
The filmmaker sat down for an extended conversation on the /Filmcast, and revealed that he hasn’t been completely immune to the barrage of “Zomg you ruined everything!” that has gone around the interweb.
READ MORE: Joseph Gordon-Levitt Defends ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’
“The crazy thing is, I had no perspective on these tweets. I had no perspective in terms of how big a group of people this was, even what they were upset about specifically. Over the next few weeks, I was able to contextualize it and feel much better about it. But at the time, I thought, ‘Oh my god, does everybody hate this? Did I totally mess up, was I wrong?’ And I had a very dark hour of the soul… because I had no context for this,” Johnson said.
The good news is that as temporarily ruffled as he might have been, the filmmaker clearly stands by “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” In fact, if he had to do it all over again (and kind of will, given that he’s brewing a new “Star Wars” trilogy), he wouldn’t change a thing.
“There’s nothing I’ve read or seen that’s made me think, ‘Oh god, I did kind of mess that up, I would’ve done that differently if I could go back,’” Johnson said. “I still genuinely believe in all the decisions I’ve made.”
Frankly, that confidence is exactly what any franchise needs, and we’re practically glad Johnson is staying in the “Star Wars” universe to boldly take the series in new directions. Listen to the full talk below.
