Rian Johnson Talks “Last Jedi” And Star Wars Future

Rian Johnson has been a lightning rod of controversy since Star Wars: The Last Jedi released back in 2017. And five years on, that film is still heavily debated and the director himself remains quite the divisive voice amongst the Star Wars fandom.

The issues most take with The Last Jedi is that it basically ignored the set up provided in Force Awakens and made a lot of odd choices for characters, such as making Luke Skywalker a cranky old man who’d given up, rather than the embodiment of enlightenment that he was “supposed” to be. The film went on to make 1.3 billion at the worldwide box office, but fans are irrevocably split, with some loving that Johnson took some unexpected chances and others insisting that he’s ruined the franchise by needlessly changing the characters.

In response to this debate, John opened up in a recent interview with Empire magazine, discussing both his overall view of his work on the film and his treatment of the Luke Skywalker character, stating that:

I’m even more proud of it five years on. When I was up at bat, I really swung at the ball. I think it’s impossible for any of us to approach Star Wars without thinking about it as a myth that we were raised with, and how that myth, that story, baked itself into us and affected us. The ultimate intent was not to strip away – the intent was to get to the basic, fundamental power of myth. And ultimately, I hope the film is an affirmation of the power of the myth of Star Wars in our lives. The final images of the movie, to me, are not deconstructing the myth of Luke Skywalker, they’re building it, and they’re him embracing it. They’re him absolutely defying the notion of, ‘Throw away the past,’ and embracing what actually matters about his myth and what’s going to inspire the next generation. So, for me, the process of stripping away is always in the interest of getting to something essential that really matters.

Following the strong reaction to The Last Jedi, Disney and LucasFilm severely overcorrected going forward, with Rise of Skywalker ending up as a neutered version of what it could have been. And Johnson, for his part, seemed content to remain with the franchise, despite fans decrying him as a villain. He was supposedly preparing a trilogy that would move away from the Skywalker saga, though that seemed to be shelved after fan fervor refused to die down. Speaking on the proposed trilogy, Johnson confirmed it still being planned, saying:

I’ve stayed close to Kathleen [Kennedy] and we get together often and talk about it. It’s just at this point a matter of schedule and when it can happen. It would break my heart if I were finished, if I couldn’t get back in that sandbox at some point.

Johnson is currently quite busy with his Knives Out follow-up, Glass Onion, so it’ll likely be a couple of years or more before he’d have time to turn his eyes back to any galaxy far, far away. Regarding Star Wars, that franchise continues to excel on the small screen, with Obi-Wan recently wrapping and Andor set to debut on Disney+ later this year.