Forget meddling in elections and spreading fake news, the Russian bots have officially crossed the line! They’ve attempted to interfere with “Star Wars!”
Sarcasm aside, it appears that well before production was finished on “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” writer/director Rian Johnson was bombarded with tweets from Russian bots regarding a specific character in the film.
No, they didn’t care about Luke (the rest of fandom had that covered). They didn’t care about the true identity of Rey’s parents (expertly handled by Johnson, anyway…don’t @ me). According to Johnson, all the Russian bots cared about was the fate of General Hux.
Seriously.
In a recent report from a SXSW screening of ‘The Last Jedi’ behind-the-scenes doc “The Director and the Jedi,” Rian Johnson is shown in the film complaining about an attack from Russian social media bots. “It’s amazing,” Johnson explains. “There’s a coordinated effort by these Russian accounts. Hundreds of them.”
Apparently, they were so concerned with the fate of General Hux, these bots started their own movement #HuxLive, and targeted the filmmaker. They wanted to make sure, arguably, the most annoying character in the new trilogy was safe in ‘The Last Jedi.’ While there was no reason given, it’s clear that Russian bots love authoritarian figures with wretched personalities that love to treat their subordinates like idiots. Or perhaps, they’re just big Domhnall Gleeson fans. And honestly, who isn’t? He was wonderful in “Ex Machina.”
“The Director and the Jedi” looks to be a fairly open and honest look at what turned out to be a very controversial film in the “Star Wars” franchise. Well, as open and honest an extra on a Blu ray for the film can be. Don’t watch the doc expecting to hear the true feelings of Mark Hamill about Luke’s journey or about the decidedly mixed fan reaction to the film.