Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson addresses backlash over certain twists [spoilers]

'I wrote this script before The Force Awakens came out, so...'

Star Wars: The Last Jedi has finally reached cinemas and — as has been well published — fans are having very mixed feelings.

Critics continue to give the movie outstanding reviews, while LucasFilm continues to speak highly of their collaboration with director Rian Johnson.

Speaking with LA Times, the director went through the movie’s various twists and turns, mentioning how fans are reacting to the movie.

Asked about how the movie expands on Force abilities, introducing how characters can transport to other places, Johnson said: “The truth is, because Star Wars until The Force Awakens has been set in amber and we hadn’t had a new Star Wars movie in 10 years, you forget that they were introducing new Force stuff with each movie, based on the requirements of the story.

“Force-grabbing didn’t come around until Empire, it wasn’t in A New Hope. Same with Force ghosts. They’d introduce new ideas of what could happen with the Force each time.”

Another criticism has regarded Supreme Leader Snok and the character’s lack of background. “I wrote this script before The Force Awakens came out, so when I wrote it, the “Who is Snoke?” mania hadn’t arisen with the fans yet,” Johnson says.

“Even if it had, my perspective is it’s similar to how the Emperor was handled. The first three movies you know nothing about the Emperor because you don’t have to, because that’s not the story. You know exactly what you need to know. Whereas in the prequels, you know everything about him because that is the story.”

Johnson also spoke about Rey’s parents being nobodies, with no Jedi lineage. “It felt like the way to go because it’s the hardest thing that she could possibly hear. It would be the easy thing for her to be defined by, ‘yes, this is how you fit into this story — it’s because your parent is so and so!’ In that moment, for Kylo to be able to use that [information] as a knife and twist it to try and get what he wants, felt like the most dramatically potent option.”

Hopefully, that explains some of the quibbles fans have regarding the movie. Meanwhile, a petition calling for The Last Jedi to be wiped from Star Wars canon continues to build steam, nearly 30,000 people signing. The Last Jedi is in cinemas now.