Star Wars: The Last Jedi director defends his divisive choices and plot twists

Star Wars: The Last Jedi ended-up being one of the most divisive movies in the saga when it was released back in 2017.

While praised by many, some vocal fans criticised the movie for the way in which it handled the characters and plot twists.

However, director Rian Johnson has defended his vision in The Last Jedi, explaining that the risks he took were in keeping with the risks that came before.

"I think the instant you start thinking in terms of how do you not step outside of the bounds of what the original movies did, you're not thinking the way the people who made the original movies did," he said on the Creative Processing with Joseph Gordon-Levitt podcast.

"They were, with every movie, they were pushing it forward, with every movie they were stepping outside those bounds and pushing the characters into new, emotionally honest, but surprising places.

"That's why those movies are great. That's why they're alive. If they had been looking at something that came before it and saying, 'Oh, we better not do this because that is outside of this or that,' it would've been different."

Johnson is set to enter the Star Wars galaxy once again with a new trilogy of movies, and recently opened-up about them being part of the "next step" in the franchise.

"I think that the fun and challenging part of it is to dive in, figure out what's exciting and then figure out what it's going to be," he said.

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"We're doing something that steps beyond the legacy characters. What does that look like? To me, the blue sky element of it is what was most striking about it.

"I know the way that I'm coming at it and what's fun about it for everyone in George Lucas' films is figuring out, 'What's the next step?' It really makes you think and figure out what the essence of Star Wars is for me and what that will look like moving forward."

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will be released on Thursday, December 19 in the UK and Friday, December 20 in the US.

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Sam Warner

Sam is a freelance reporter and sub-editor who has a particular interest in movies, TV and music. After completing a journalism Masters at City University, London, Sam joined Digital Spy as a reporter, and has also freelanced for publications such as NME and Screen International.  Sam, who also has a degree in Film, can wax lyrical about everything from Lord of the Rings to Love Is Blind, and is equally in his element crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i' as a sub-editor.