There’s no denying that Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi was one of the most divisive blockbusters in recent memory. Some fans hail it as the best Star Wars movie of all time while others claim it ruined the franchise. Those in the latter category would no doubt cringe at the idea of Johnson taking over the entire trilogy, but it’s obvious things would have been different had Johnson had more control over the story he was trying to tell.
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Whether or not someone likes The Last Jedi, it is clear Johnson had a vision for the kind of Star Wars story he wanted to tell. He wanted to explore the grey areas of this universe and its characters. He wanted to show fans moments and concepts they had never seen in these movies. He wanted to expand on the story that was built by Lucas. This feels in stark contrast to Abrams who seemed to want to recapture the nostalgia of the original movies. Indeed, fans ate it up with The Force Awakens, but many felt it was too reliant on those older movies and afraid to be its own thing.
By the time Abrams tried to go the nostalgic route with The Rise of Skywalker, fans were tired of seeing the same old tricks resulting in one of the most forgettable Star Wars movies. But while Johnson’s movie was not weighed down with nostalgia, fans found plenty of issues with it, many of which would have been resolved had Johnson been telling this story from the beginning.
So much of the criticism for The Last Jedi comes from the storytelling decisions Johnson made. But fans fail to recognize that a lot of those decisions were in response to what came before. From his resolution of certain mysteries to the secondary storylines to the use of certain characters, these were all reactionary decisions to The Force Awakens. Given he was delivering the second installment in the trilogy, Johnson clearly wanted to do more than just provide a stepping stone to the finale; he wanted to tell a single rounded story. Had Johnson made the first chapter in this trilogy, the second installment might not have felt like such a departure.
Many fans were frustrated by how The Last Jedi handled the setup of The Force Awakens. Abrams loves planting the seeds of mystery in his projects and he indulged in that with The Force Awakens. Much to the surprise of fans, Johnson cut loose these hanging threads, concluding that Rey’s parents were no one important as well as killing off Snoke. It might feel a little awkward having these ideas set up only to be dismissed rather quickly, but Johnson had bigger ideas than “guess who Rey’s father is.” While it might provide some fun speculation for fans, it’s not necessarily good storytelling. A trilogy with Johnson at the helm could have avoided these pointless mysteries altogether and focused on the story.
One of the most interesting ideas that Johnson introduced in The Last Jedi was expanding who a Jedi could be. This is best represented in his take on Rey who, in Johnson’s mind, was not the child of some powerful Jedi or Sith, but a young girl abandoned by her parents. She is not part of the Skywalker story which makes her such an interesting character. Johnson follows this idea with the final shot of the movie as a boy with a broom is shown to have Jedi powers as well. It is the idea that anyone can be special no matter where they come from. Abrams shot this idea down in a bafflingly bad way by making Rey the granddaughter of Palpatine. As beloved as the Skywalker Saga is, Johnson’s approach seemed to be a clever way of bringing that to a close while leading into the future. It would have been interesting to see how Johnson could have explored these themes over an entire trilogy and with characters that he created himself.
Perhaps the biggest issue that is brought up with The Last Jedi is its use of Luke Skywalker. However, once again, much of this was a response to what had been set up in The Force Awakens. That movie established that Luke was in hiding and ended with Rey tracking him down and delivering his lightsaber. It was Johnson’s job to continue that story and give a reason why Luke was in exile. Given that Luke remained in hiding while the First Order rose to power, planets were destroyed, and Han Solo was killed, having him return just because Rey handed him a lightsaber would have been cheap.
Instead, Johnson created a Luke who would do nothing while all of this happened because that’s what he thought was the right thing to do. Fans might not have liked seeing this version of Luke, but it was a more complex take on the character instead of just seeing the same guy but older. With his own trilogy, there’s no telling how Johnson would have used Luke and the other original characters had he been free of the constraints of The Force Awakens.
In the end, it seems as the sequel trilogy will always be seen as a squandered opportunity that cannot be undone. While it is easy to look back on it with the benefit of hindsight, it does seem like a strange decision to plan a trilogy but not agree on one uniform direction. Despite the mixed feelings about The Last Jedi, when it comes to the two directors who were involved in the sequel trilogy, there is only one who was ready to deliver a bold, energetic, and unique take on the beloved franchise and it’s hard not to feel robbed that it never happened.
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