Rian Johnson may be a very, very busy man away from the galaxy far, far away but in interviews that usually have nothing to do with Star Wars, the conversation often circles back to the subject of Star Wars, a topic that clearly – despite the praise for his entry The Last Jedi being equally matched by the negativity – is still very close to his heart.
It’s hard to say it’s been anything but smooth sailing ever since for Johnson, who went on to helm one of the greatest episodes in TV history, Breaking Bad‘s “Ozymandias,” and the middle installment of Star Wars‘ sequel trilogy, The Last Jedi, which divided fandom. “We made that movie in this beautiful, fearless little bubble, and the reality is, once you dive in and start doing the creative work, there isn’t a lot of room in your head for the notion of external pressure,” Johnson says.
Yet while Last Jedi made good money and satisfied Lucasfilm enough for them to offer Johnson the next movie — which he politely declined — here at least was his first sustained taste of backlash. Some audience members rebelled against Jedi‘s moody take on Luke Skywalker and its meta sense of humor. “Before I made the Star Wars movie, when I was very, very active on Twitter, if someone said anything mean about me, I felt like I had to fix that,” Johnson says. Now he engages far more selectively. “Having grown up as a Star Wars fan, I think the love and the hate are two sides of the same coin, and it’s all passion for what the thing is. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to deal with when it’s coming at you in a personal way.”
Johnson had signed on to mount a fresh Star Wars trilogy in 2017, and while that plan is effectively dead, he isn’t saying goodbye yet. “A part of my brain will always be in Star Wars,” he says. “It’s so much a part of me and the way I think.”
While news reports are taking elements of this interview to confirm that the Johnson trilogy is ‘dead’, until the man himself or Lucasfilm make a statement then it’s as alive now as it was when it was first announced.
