Daisy Ridley Says The Star Wars: The Last Jedi Backlash Was Fair

Though they share quite a few similarities – same franchise, same timeline… you name it – The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi are actually quite different from one another.

One was a retro-inspired callback to the Star Wars movies of old, while the other took the shape of a bold, experimental sequel helmed by an auteur director in the form of Rian Johnson. That being said, Episode VIII certainly had its fair share of detractors, but if nothing else, the Looper filmmaker brought us a truly exciting installment in the Skywalker Saga.

Still, as we just mentioned, a lot of people had issues with the movie and speaking in a recent interview, star Daisy Ridley, who plays Rey, says that the intense backlash to the film didn’t surprise her. In fact, she even went so far as to admit that she thinks it was fair, in a sense.

“I wasn’t surprised, no. It’s just a different thing. Everyone’s going to have an opinion now anyway on the internet, but I also think it’s fair. If people hold something incredibly dear and think they know how it should be and it’s not like that, it’s fair for people to think they were done wrong. It doesn’t mean they were – ultimately, Rian’s a filmmaker and one person can’t dictate how a film is supposed to be – but freedom of expression, sure.

She makes a good point, truth be told, and it’ll be interesting to see how and if J.J. Abrams can get things back on track with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. He’s already said the backlash against The Last Jedi has had no impact on the decisions he’s made, but you have to imagine Lucasfilm will be treading a little more carefully now after the bold steps Rian Johnson took proved to be divisive.

In any case, we’ll see just how the Skywalker saga comes to a close quite soon, as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker blasts into theaters around the world on December 20th. But if you want to see more of Johnson’s unique filmmaking first, be sure to check back with us tomorrow as we’ll have the first trailer for his new movie, Knives Out, as soon as it drops.