No film has been as nearly divisive as Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, the Star Wars movie which tore the fandom apart. If you mention the film around a group of fans, make sure to stand far enough (mention Luke and Rey at your own risk). Actress Kelly Marie Tran abandoned social media after fans turned their hate against her, and she received only a forgettable minute of screen time in the sequel.
Yet, over five years later, as “fans” continue to rage, Rian Johnson is even prouder of The Last Jedi and its impact on the Star Wars universe — and he should be. It’s easily one of the best Star Wars films yet, for conflicted heroes and pure villains, diving deep into the nature of the Force, deviating from the formula, asking questions, cracking jokes, taking risks, and for taking Star Wars seriously. There is much we can learn from this film, and Star Wars has a lot to learn too. Here’s what future Star Wars movies can learn from The Last Jedi.
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Using Character Flaws and Transformation
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
The most controversial part of The Last Jedi was Luke himself. Rey searches for the legendary hero who ended Palpatine’s decades-long galactic reign of terror, redeemed Darth Vader, and founded the New Jedi Order. To many, Luke is the Jedi who never lost hope, just like his mother. Rey finds a broken old man, hopeless and drinking green milk. Fans felt betrayed, Luke lost hope, and they found out that their hero was human.
Johnson said bringing back Luke was complicated. Luke Skywalker is a myth, and Johnson could either keep the mythological hero Luke or make a real human. So the hero who represents hope, who means hope, who is hope, lost hope. The sharp change was necessary. Johnson shook the youthful naivety off Luke to explore the character. Luke saw no hope for Ben Solo and lost everything: his family, his students, and his hope. We see Luke at his lowest, but we see him grow.
People can only grow if they recognize their flaws. Luke’s flaw is that he saw himself as hope, did not place hope in others, and thought his hope could fix everything, so when he failed with Ben Solo, he lost himself. Rey’s flaw was seeing no hope in herself, placing no hope in herself, and that she could do nothing without Luke, without her parents. Luke had to learn there is always hope and that we can’t rely on ourselves for everything. Rey had to learn that hope exists in all, even in herself, and she couldn’t rely on others for everything. And these flaws lead both characters to change themselves.
Before, both Luke and Rey were the same, hopeful youths from hopeless desert worlds, flat and featureless. Johnson took the twin blank slates and made them into truly hopeful images, developing fully fleshed characters while underscoring the franchise’s core value of hope at the same time.
Moving Beyond the Past
Lucasfilm
It’s always hardest to let go, yet that’s exactly what Star Wars has to do, so Johnson started the difficult process in The Last Jedi. Exactly forty years after we met Luke Skywalker as a farmboy on Tatooine, we had to say goodbye to the old Jedi on Ahch-To after his last brilliant act of selflessness. We felt as much pain as his sister Leia, reuniting and embracing after so long for so short a time.
It was hard but necessary. In a franchise that’s half a century old, it’s clear that Star Wars can’t just keep replaying its greatest hits over and over again. Luke received a proper sendoff in The Last Jedi, willingly stepping aside for the next generation of Jedi for the next generation of fans. But all the progress made was undone after The Rise of Skywalker, where Luke returns only to backtrack on all he’s learned because of fans’ unwillingness to let go. Palpatine’s nonsensical resurrection only reinforces the need to let go, as the Dark Lord of the Sith returned in a pathetic attempt to appease fans and retconned everything good and worthwhile about Luke and Rey.
Star Wars needs innovation and originality that still honors the past but grows beyond it — otherwise, the franchise will die.
Developing the Force
The Last Jedi arguably does the most of any Star Wars film to develop the franchise’s most interesting and confusing concept, the Force. The best scenes center around Luke and Rey diving deep into both the light and the dark, the very being of this invisible and powerful Force that binds the universe together. The film explains the Force in detail yet retains the mystery of this living energy, and introduced many new and old Force abilities brilliantly. Johnson removes all barriers of light and dark, so we can try to understand the very meaning of the Force. The Last Jedi develops the meaning of Star Wars through the Force and opens it up to everyone. The Force doesn’t belong to the Jedi or to the Skywalkers, the Force is for nobodies like Rey.
Rey didn’t need to inherit the power from great Jedi parents. She didn’t need her destiny carved out for her; she had no destiny but what she makes. She helps Ben Solo learn that he isn’t defined by his grandfather. He could break free because the Force is for them, not the past. The Last Jedi breaks down the idea of Force aristocracy and shows us that the power belongs to all of us.
Defying Fan Expectations
The most important lesson to learn from the entire sequel trilogy is how to defy fan expectations. Not subvert them, though The Last Jedi does just that, but how to not crumble under the pressure of millions trying to force filmmakers into doing exactly as they want. So many wanted Rey to be a Skywalker, a Solo, a Kenobi, a Binks, to have any big last name. But Johnson made her a nobody. And that became the best part of the whole trilogy. Disney crumbled under fan expectations and so The Rise of Skywalker was a movie that tried to please everyone but satisfied no one. Johnson showed that caving to fan (or studio) pressure is a necessary skill to help the franchise move on.
Out of the failure of the sequel trilogy, The Last Jedi shows us and the franchise the way forward, the controversial yet essential message that we can’t ignore the past but must reconcile the past with the present for us to have a future. Here’s to hoping that the next Star Wars movie is as controversial as Johnson’s.
