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Star Wars actor criticises The Last Jedi, says Rian Johnson ‘didn’t do his homework’

‘You can’t reinvent Star Wars without knowing Star Wars first’

Jacob Stolworthy
Thursday 07 May 2020 10:54 BST
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The Last Jedi - teaser

Another Star Wars actor has criticised Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi.

The film has divided fans since it was released in 2017, and despite being associated with the science-fiction franchise, voice actor Sam Witwer didn't hold back when discussing it.

Last Jedi, to me, felt like a movie made by a guy who hadn’t quite done his homework,” he said during a livestream on Twitch. “I think Rian Johnson’s a talented guy, but Bruce Lee didn’t develop Jeet Kune Do without learning Kung Fu first.”

Witwer is a voice actor appearing in several of the franchise’s TV shows and video games. He also voiced Darth Maul in Solo.

He continued: “You can’t reinvent Star Wars without knowing Star Wars first and he didn’t, for me, make a compelling argument for why Luke wouldn’t go and help his sister.

"Or if indeed Luke is hiding out on that island because he feels so badly for how he handled Kylo Ren – then why is Luke trash talking Kylo Ren at the end of the movie? Which is it – do you feel bad that you hurt this boy or do you trash talk him?”

He levelled that Johnson included “a lot of things that [I think] were compelling in a filmmaker point of view”, but thinks “they just didn’t fit into Star Wars”.

Witwer capped his thoughts with: “I don’t think he did his Star Wars homework. I’m talking like the themes, what it’s about, what the characters are about.

“But as a standalone film, if I don’t know what the Jedi are or who Luke is or what he represents, I think there’s some compelling things in there. If that’s meaningful to you, that’s awesome.”

John Boyega, who played Fin in the new trilogy, recently shared his candid view on The Rise of Skywalker months after admitting he felt underwhelmed with his storyline in Johnson’s film.

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