Star Wars: The Last Jedi turned out to be the most controversial and divisive entry in the franchise when it was originally released, with Rian Johnson’s approach to the established mythology not going down so well with certain, and incredibly vocal, sections of the fanbase. The director has admitted that he took a lot of risks with the movie, and the backlash has even been publicly addressed by members of the cast.
However, the execs at Lucasfilm don’t seem to be too disappointed with Johnson’s work, having hired the filmmaker to craft an entirely new trilogy separate from the Skywalker Saga. J.J. Abrams, the man who brought Star Wars back to the forefront of popular culture with The Force Awakens, has returned to the franchise to finish off the nine-movie arc started by George Lucas in 1977 with the upcoming Rise of Skywalker, and in a recent interview he admitted that had he directed The Last Jedi, he would have taken a different approach.
“If I had done VIII, I would have done things differently, just as Rian would have done things differently if he had done VII. But having worked on television series, I was accustomed to creating stories and characters that then were run by other people. If you’re willing to walk away from the thing that you created and you believe it’s in trustworthy hands, you have to accept that some of the decisions being made are not gonna be the same that you would make. And if you come back into it, you have to honor what’s been done.”
The comments by Abrams also seem to confirm that he isn’t looking to retcon anything that happened in The Last Jedi, which some people were speculating would happen given how Rian Johnson dramatically altered several major story threads. Some fans likely aren’t going to be happy with this, but the head of Bad Robot has already said that when it comes to Star Wars, you can’t please everyone. Hopefully, The Rise of Skywalker will be able to end the series on a high note without any of the vitriol that greeted The Last Jedi.
