Yes, we’re on the verge of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” hitting theaters, but the conversation surrounding the Lucasfilm franchise can still find its way back to 2017’s ‘The Last Jedi.’ And now, after almost two years, John Boyega is admitting that there were parts of Rian Johnson’s film that he didn’t agree with.
Speaking to Hypebeast, Boyega talked about his feelings towards ‘The Last Jedi’ and how fans reacted to the film. While he didn’t necessarily agree with Johnson’s film completely, he still doesn’t understand why the discussion has turned toxic.
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“‘The Force Awakens’ I think was the beginning of something quite solid, ‘The Last Jedi’ if I’m being honest I’d say that was feeling a bit iffy for me,” the actor said. “I didn’t necessarily agree with a lot of the choices in that and that’s something that spoke to Mark [Hamill] a lot about and we had conversations about it. And it was hard for all of us, because we were separated.”
Boyega went on to expand on his last comment about being separated from his ‘Force Awakens’ crew of Daisy Ridley and Oscar Isaac in ‘The Last Jedi’ and how that has made the new trilogy lose a bit of the magic that was found in the original films that featured Han, Luke, and Leia.
“I guess the original ‘Star Wars’ films there was much more of a trio feel where it was essentially about Luke’s journey, but Han and Leia there was a strong dynamic, which I think, I don’t know how quickly we’re going to be able to establish that longterm dynamic with [‘Episode] Nine,’” he explained. “But if it’s exploring that dynamic, then that would be cool. I do feel even after three films still, we don’t know them as much as we got to know Han, Luke, Leia. And maybe that’s a great opportunity to get to know them a little bit more.”
Of course, Boyega is far from the first person to offer some criticisms of Rian Johnson’s 2017 ‘Last Jedi.’ For almost two years now, when the film is brought up among certain “Star Wars” fans, the conversation quickly turns personal and insults (racist, sexist, and otherwise) usually get lobbed. And this is something that the actor finds deeply troubling, but he knows it’s still just a small part of the discussion.
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“The rest of the fandom, even when they have problems with it, it’s discussed in a very cordial way, in a fun way,” he said. “But when it gets toxic, when no one’s listening and then I say one thing and then it becomes an attack, come on man, I can tell you lot ain’t never had no real fight before. You call that an attack?”
We’ll have to see if ‘Rise of Skywalker’ is met with that sort of vitriol when the film is released on December 20.