The director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson, defends the movie’s controversial Snoke choice and cites one franchise scene that defined Episode VIII. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a controversial movie, to put it bluntly. The film split the fanbase in two, often making it the worst-ranked Star Wars film in the eyes of many.
The subversion of expectations – expectations that were established thanks to Star Wars: The Force Awakens – was a big reason as to why The Last Jedi was so divisive.
Rian Johnson, in an interview with Rolling Stone, has addressed the most controversial of these subversions: the death of Supreme Leader Snoke. Johnson was asked about the decision that saw Snoke cut in half midway through The Last Jedi, citing one scene from J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens as the reason why he made it:
“The interrogation scene in the first movie, between Rey and Kylo, was so incredibly powerful. Seeing this complicated villain that’s been created, I was just so compelled by that.”
Johnson goes on to say that he did not “easily dispense with Snoke,” and that he “took great pains to use him in the most dramatically impactful way I could.” In Johnson’s mind, the dramatically impactful use of Snoke in question was to position Kylo Ren as the sequel trilogy’s main villain, driven by the scene he was so compelled by in The Force Awakens.
Rian Johnson Was Deliberately Making The Empire Strikes Back Of The Sequels
Subversion Was Key
Concerning why the wider story of Star Wars: The Last Jedi was so unexpected, Johnson also mentioned that he was trying to make the movie like The Empire Strikes Back. While the latter may be considered Star Wars’ best movie now, it was once a divisive follow-up to A New Hope that took the franchise in bold new directions.
This was typified by one of the greatest twists in cinema history: the reveal that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father. This is nothing if not subversive, with The Last Jedi following suit. In fact, Johnson revealed he was asked by Kathleen Kennedy to make “the Empire [Strikes Back] of this series.“ The filmmaker says he took that ᴀssignment seriously.
Johnson has referenced the “I Am Your Father” twist before, yet this is the most explicit he has been about trying to recapture what made The Empire Strikes Back so great. Johnson insisted that he did not want to make something that just nods to Empire, but that it “meant trying to genuinely do what Empire did.”
Our Take On The Last Jedi’s Legacy
All of this made The Last Jedi one of the most controversial franchise films in cinema history. A great portion of the fanbase loved The Last Jedi‘s story and the way it told a unique story akin to The Empire Strikes Back, while others felt it disregarded what made Lucas’ Star Wars so special. Division aside, this has created one thing: legacy.
Of all the Star Wars sequels, there is no doubt that The Last Jedi is the one people still talk about the most today, almost a decade after its release. This legacy may not be entirely positive, but it has one nonetheless. Beyond that, The Last Jedi is the most likely sequel to tie into upcoming Star Wars movies.
The film included Ahch-To, the site of the first-ever Jedi Temple. James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi movie, a story set to explore the origin of the Order, is likely to tie back to this. Where legacy is concerned, these aspects prove that Star Wars: The Last Jedi will not disappear from the franchise anytime soon.
