Movies News Talk
Star Wars: The Last Jedi was the first time Luke Skywalker had a proper story in over 40 years. Since Return of the Jedi in 1983, Luke had only received storylines in books, novels, or comics, and Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012 saw almost every single one of these stories be rendered Star Wars Legends or non-canon. The Last Jedi faced an immense amount of pressure to tell a satisfying Luke Skywalker story. Not only was it the first Luke story since Return of the Jedi which itself invites expectation, but it had to provide logical explanations for The Force Awakens' setup of his exile.
Due to these factors, Luke Skywalker's storyline in Episode VIII was going to be controversial either way. As it turns out, the guilt and shame surrounding his history with Kylo Ren proved incredibly divisive, as did Luke Skywalker's eventual death in The Last Jedi.
The various trailers for The Last Jedi are exceptionally crafted, as are the trailers for The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker. Lucasfilm's marketing has rarely been better, yet The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi specifically have some elements in their trailers that misled fans. The former has long been criticized for positioning John Boyega's Finn as the sequel trilogy's Jedi before the film gave that honor to Daisy Ridley's Rey.
Concerning The Last Jedi, the marketing did not adequately outline the film's subversiveness. The trailers did not sell how different the film's story would be from typical Star Wars, which itself caused controversy.
Many choices made by writer-director Rian Johnson received criticism. As alluded to, his handling of Luke Skywalker - from the character's guilt and shame to his exile - was one such choice. This storyline, along with many others, simply fell under the umbrella of Johnson choosing not to focus on theories many had after Star Wars: The Force Awakens. After two years of fan theories and discourse around the sequel trilogy's lingering mysteries, Johnson decided not to invest too heavily in answering these mysteries solely to appease fans.
As such, many of Johnson's choices proved divisive. For example, the bulk of theories after The Force Awakens surrounded Rey's parentage. In The Last Jedi, Johnson simply decided to make Rey nobody. She was positioned as a character of no noble family or powerful bloodline, and instead someone who was simply called upon to fight darkness. Another primary source of post-Force Awakens theories centered around the mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke. The villainous figure was only teased in Episode VII, leading many to expect his storyline to be fleshed out in The Last Jedi. Instead, Snoke died.
As is often the case in modern franchise filmmaking, fan expectations proved to be the primary source of Star Wars: The Last Jedi's controversy. While fans are well within their right to theorize and speculate on lingering mysteries, it is their responsibility not to pin all of their hopes and expectations on these theories. With The Last Jedi, a large group of fans failed in this responsibility. Theorizing and discourse completely took over the fandom, and thus, a massive amount of pressure was placed upon the film to answer these theories exactly as they had been crafted in fans' minds.
Of course, it is worth noting that this issue does not exist solely within the Star Wars fandom. The DCEU, MCU, and other major franchises that have faced divisiveness - such as Game of Thrones with its contentious ending - have all told stories that play out differently from what theories presented, thus facing controversy. Star Wars: The Last Jedi was no different. The expectations placed on answers to the mysteries of Luke, Rey, Snoke, and other characters were subverted, which enabled the film to become the single most divisive entry in a galaxy far, far away.