ByPaul Tassi,
Senior Contributor.
Bringing up The Last Jedi in Star Wars fandom is the equivalent of touching a hot stove with scorching takes on either side. But this latest bit of news is the most eyebrow-raising thing we’ve heard on that front since release.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, it’s been confirmed that after The Last Jedi, Lucasfilm offered him Star Wars Episode IX, continuing his story, an offer which he turned down. That led to the JJ Abrams-led finale, The Rise of Skywalker, another divisive installment that famously erased most of the storylines Johnson had been building, most notably the fact that Rey did not have a famous Star Wars bloodline. Instead, Abrams revealed she was the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine, a character he brought back out of nowhere.
Without question, The Last Jedi is the most controversial Star Wars project ever made, with a collection of fans positively hating it for various alleged sins against the franchise. Critics were much more kind, and it ended up with a 50% gap in scores, a 91% to a 41% on Rotten Tomatoes between critics and viewers. Only recently have we seen The Acolyte be this controversial, but it’s still nowhere near the fervor The Last Jedi inspired. To this day, I can post that I liked the movie online and get 100 comments instantly debating that (most of them disagreeing).
