Hoo boy, the Star Wars: The Last Jedi detractors are going to love this one. Though actor Simon Pegg played a small part in the latest trilogy as Jakku junkyard dealer Unkar Plutt, it seems that he wasn’t completely satisfied with how Rian Johnson’s divisive film turned out, feeling that a little bit of that distinctive Star Wars personality was somehow lacking in this latest episode.
The Star Trek regular shared his thoughts on The Adam Buxton Podcast, explaining that George Lucas might’ve been the missing ingredient:
“I must admit, watching the last Star Wars film, the overriding feeling I got when I came out was, ‘I miss George Lucas.’ For all the complaining that I’d done about him in the prequels, there was something amazing about his imagination. I do feel like his voice is missing from the current ones.”
Pegg has been known in the past to take a few shots at the Star Wars prequels – and he’s hardly unique in that respect – but earlier this year, the actor expressed some remorse about being so hard on Jar Jar Binks in particular after he learned of the emotional toll that all the backlash had taken on actor Ahmed Best.
As for whether these latest films really are missing that Lucas touch, that’s of course a highly subjective matter. While some fans will be in complete agreement with Pegg that the new Star Wars just doesn’t feel like Star Wars anymore, others will likely argue that he needs to take off the nostalgia goggles. Ever since Lucas left the franchise, it’s certainly true that the series has strayed from his original vision, but for better or worse, in losing that filmmaker’s presence, Disney found some new voices in J.J. Abrams and especially Johnson.
In any case, Pegg’s critical comments about Star Wars: The Last Jedi pretty much confirm that he isn’t planning on coming back for Star Wars: Episode IX, but we’ll see if Abrams gets the saga feeling like its old self or brings us something else entirely when the film hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.
