Lucasfilm's most recent trilogy closer, The Rise of Skywalker, is being regularly and passionately discussed, whereas Star Wars: The Last Jedi is still being regularly and passionately discussed. Do you remember that?
While promoting Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson looked back on his most famous films in a video interview with the magazine. He said, "For me, everything in the movie is Star Wars and everything in the movie is what Star Wars is for me." Everyone has an opinion. There are people who think that Star Wars was serious, like The Batman movies or something.
The director continued to talk about his upbringing. Empire Strikes Back had a profound impact on me because I was just young enough to not experience it as a Star Wars movie, but to have it feel like one. He said Return of the Jedi was his favorite movie. I don't know if anyone has seen Return of the Jedi, but anyone who thinks that slightly goofy humor doesn't fit in with the Star Wars universe is crazy. There is a scene in the movie where a torch is used to light the fire and cook Han. They are in the heart of the Death Star, and they are trying to get out with their lives and save the princess, where they are pretending that Chewbacca is like their prisoner. The droid sounds like a scared dog, does it?
There was a sense of campy fun in the original films. On a spectrum that includes Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau leaning very much into the family comedy in their Disney+ projects, Johnson lands somewhere in the middle. There are elements of gleeful humor in Star Wars. The whole thing is not what it appears to be. In the movie, we are very serious. The balance of those two things is part of the Star Wars universe.
The idea of going different places with Star Wars is sacrilegious and Johnson's film shook up the galaxy far, far away. Johnson knows what he did and how it affected the stories. The whole thing has to be an honest expression of what the characters are actually going through. It isn't very interesting to just think about Star Wars in a certain way.
The Jedi Master will be able to write his own ending when the books are burned. A generation that is now the older generation of heroes is dealing with being role models for the younger generation and still being human beings with flaws. There is a person who feels fallible as a human being. The legends that I grew up with were the characters in Star Wars. These movies are the most consistent thing in my life and they have been for a long time. Anyone making a Star Wars movie today is going to engage with their relationship with Star Wars itself.
We would like to see more of your relationship with Star Wars. The trilogy was promised, but we are still waiting for it.
You can watch the entire interview here.
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