Domhnall Gleeson Says Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s Humor Was Necessary

Now that Star Wars: The Last Jedi has had its time in the sun and inspired all kinds of debate and discussion, the inevitable post-mortem has begun.

Such is the lot of the Star Wars franchise – each new installment is accompanied by so much hype and expectation that anything other than an absolute home run usually attracts a great deal of analysis as to why that perfection was not achieved for everybody. With The Force Awakens, people said that it was too similar to A New Hope. With The Last Jedi meanwhile, apparently some are unhappy that it’s too different.

One of the causes of this discontent seems to be the humour in the script, written by director Rian Johnson, and in a new interview with MTV’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Domhnall Gleeson (who plays General Hux) says that while he believes these parts of the film were necessary, he still understands why some people reacted to them so negatively.

“If you expect it to be a certain way, and it’s not that way, you’re going to be disappointed. You can’t decide not to be disappointed. If you’re disappointed, you are. I just – it’s my opinion that it was better to change things up than remain on the same kind of tramline sort of thing. And I thought Rian [Johnson] had tremendous respect for everything that had [come] before, but he also did his own thing. And I think for a filmmaker like him, it would be foolish not to have him do his own thing.”

Gleeson’s comments here are certainly sound. After all, The Last Jedi wasn’t made to simply fulfill expectations and desires of fans. This is an entry into the saga that blows the previously narrow plot arc wide open. The very fact that so much humor exists in the film informs us in no uncertain terms that anything can happen. All bets are off – and this is something that continues throughout the rest of the tale.

Indeed, with Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson has issued a very clear rallying cry to franchise filmmakers everywhere: the time has come to mix things up and make some changes, and it’s entirely possible to have fun and succeed at that, while still paying homage to the origins of the story.