A new rumor suggests that the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker crew were told to stop criticizing Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi.
As reported by Disney Star Wars Is Dumb, the rumor comes from an alleged crew member of the film who took to 4chan to participate in what appears to be a Q&A about The Rise of Skywalker.
When one user questioned what it was like working with director J.J. Abrams and whether they joked about Rian Johnson being a hack, the alleged crew member responded.
They first indicated that they “didnt really speak to” J.J. Abrams at all. They then noted that there were “a lot of people” criticizing Johnson’s The Last Jedi. In fact, this alleged crew members indicated they were told “to stop doing it on set.”
Star Wars: The Last Jedi divided fans, with the majority appearing to dislike the film after they viewed it in theaters given the Rotten Tomatoes Audience score currently sits at 44% from 209,745 reviews. The film has an identical score on Metacritic with a User Score of 4.4. In fact, the film has 4,010 negative reviews compared to only 2,903 positive reviews. There were 1,100 mixed reviews.
Daisy Ridley on Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi
Actress Daisy Ridley recently admitted that she was not surprised by the backlash to Johnson’s The Last Jedi. She told USA Today, “I wasn’t surprised, no. It’s just a different thing.”
She even added that she believed the backlash is “fair.”
“Everyone’s going to have an opinion now anyway on the internet, but I also think it’s fair. If people hold something incredibly dear and think they know how it should be and it’s not like that, it’s fair for people to think they were done wrong.”
She did add the caveat, “It doesn’t mean they were – ultimately, Rian’s a filmmaker and one person can’t dictate how a film is supposed to be – but freedom of expression, sure.”
Mark Hamill Criticizes Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi
While Ridley commented on the fan reaction, Mark Hamill has been openly critical of Rian Johnson’s vision for The Last Jedi. Hamill specifically pointed to a scene where Johnson had him walk past C-3PO without even recognizing him.
“They had me walking by 3PO, not even acknowledging him. I said: “I can’t do that! He (The Last Jedi’s director, Rian Johnson) said, “Okay, go over and do whatever.” So I went over, and I did whatever. They say it in the script: “Forget the past, kill it if you have to”, and they’re doing a pretty good job!’”
Admiral Ackbar Actor Tim Rose on Johnson’s The Last Jedi
Tim Rose who played Admiral Ackbar recently detailed how he was humiliated on the set of The Last Jedi as well as disappointed by what was in the script for Admiral Ackbar. Rose noted his disappointment in the script saying, “And I looked at my script and I went, ‘Oh, Ackbar’s going out of the window. Well, that’s that then!'”
He then detailed how he was humiliated on set:
“We finished all of our bits and they asked me to come down to camera. And I thought, ‘Oh well, maybe they’re going to say thank you for being one of the heritage characters and giving 30 years and all that.’ But what they did was, they gave me a Millennium Falcon sign that had the day and the date on it, the scene number, and they said, ‘Can you look at camera and say ‘It’s a wrap?’ Because that would be really funny.”
He added:
“I was actually in tears in the suit because I thought – after everything, after hoping there’d be something, after knowing there wasn’t going to be anything else, Ackbar’s final moment before he went in to the box was just a big joke about ‘It’s a wrap.’ They just thought ‘Wouldn’t it be funny?’ And that was the sum total of my life as Ackbar.”
Admiral Ackbar Voice Actor Tom Kane on The Last Jedi
Admiral Ackbar voice actor Tom Kane recently appeared at Star Wars Celebration in Chicago earlier this year, and openly criticized Johnson’s The Last Jedi.
Kane stated, “And I was not really thrilled how they blew him out the side of a ship. I’m like who is this Holdo woman? Nobody knows her. No one is invested in her. Who is she? Why is she saving the fleet? If anyone’s going to save the fleet it would be Ack…”
Given a number of actors from Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi have spoken out about the film, it would be no surprise that a number of the crew on The Rise of Skywalker would also be criticizing the film.