Rian Johnson Reignites The Last Jedi Debate With Candid Reflections

Rian Johnson is back in whodunnit mode with his third Knives Out movie rolling out, and yeah — at this point, it feels fair to say he has fully walked out of movie jail. The Last Jedi may have split the fandom straight down the middle, but critics liked it, the box office did fine, and Johnson has since stacked up wins with the Knives Out series. Not a bad place to land after Brick, Looper, and a killer Breaking Bad episode on the resume.

Looking back at the Star Wars storm

Johnson just did a new profile with The Hollywood Reporter and talked through the noise around The Last Jedi. He says the actual making of the movie happened in a kind of creative bubble where outside pressure didn’t really register.

We made that movie in this beautiful, fearless little bubble, and the reality is, once you dive in and start doing the creative work, there isn’t a lot of room in your head for the notion of external pressure.

Before Star Wars, he was very online and felt the need to respond to every jab. That changed.

Before I made the Star Wars movie, when I was very, very active on Twitter, if someone said anything mean about me, I felt like I had to fix that.

These days, he picks his spots. He gets the passion — all of it — but that doesn’t make it fun when it turns personal.

Having grown up as a Star Wars fan, I think the love and the hate are two sides of the same coin, and it’s all passion for what the thing is. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to deal with when it’s coming at you in a personal way.

The trilogy that never was (yet)

Here’s the part longtime watchers will clock: before The Last Jedi even opened, Lucasfilm was excited enough to invite Johnson to keep playing in that galaxy. A whole new Johnson-led trilogy was announced ages ago. Since then? Not much has happened on that front. He hasn’t shut the door, though.

A part of my brain will always be in Star Wars. It’s so much a part of me and the way I think.

Meanwhile, Benoit Blanc keeps thriving

While the Star Wars future sits in the waiting room, Johnson’s current obsession is murder, manners, and messy rich people. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery brings back Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc and piles on a cast that is genuinely wild:

• Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, plus Thomas Haden Church (Spider-Man 3), Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men), Josh O'Connor (The Crown), Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), Andrew Scott (Ripley), Kerry Washington (Little Fires Everywhere), Daryl McCormack (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande), Mila Kunis (That 70s Show), Glenn Close (Fatal Attraction), and Jeremy Renner (Avengers: Endgame) — yes, the same Renner whose face was a hot sauce gag in Glass Onion.

Release plan

The streamer is giving Wake Up Dead Man a two-week theatrical run starting November 26, then it hits the platform worldwide on December 12.

Short version: Johnson took the heat, kept his head down, and made more crowd-pleasers. If that’s movie jail, it comes with pretty nice amenities.