Director Rian Johnson says fan backlash to 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' gave him 'a very dark hour of the soul'

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"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" director Rian Johnson said in a new interview that fan backlash to his "Star Wars" movie led him to "a very dark hour of the soul."
Though "The Last Jedi" earned a 90% "Fresh" rating among critics on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences had mixed reactions to the film, some of which were fervently negative.

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" director Rian Johnson continued to discuss the fan backlash to his critically acclaimed "Star Wars" entry in a new interview with The /Filmcast.

Days after "The Last Jedi" premiered in December, Johnson told Business Insider's Jason Guerrasio that the fan backlash he encountered on social media "always hurts," but that he didn't "take it personally if a fan reacts negatively and lashes out on me on Twitter."

Though "The Last Jedi" earned a 90% "Fresh" rating among critics on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences had mixed reactions to the film. While many praised Johnson's new direction for the franchise, there were also fervent detractors, including a group that petitioned to remove "The Last Jedi" from the "Star Wars" canon entirely.

the last jedi lucasfilm final In his interview with The /Filmcast, Johnson further addressed how he initially had a tough time processing the negative fan response, which led him to "a very dark hour of the soul."

"The crazy thing is, I had no perspective on these tweets. I had no perspective in terms of how big a group of people this was, even what they were upset about specifically,” he said. "Over the next few weeks, I was able to contextualize it and feel much better about it. But at the time, I thought, 'Oh my god, does everybody hate this? Did I totally mess up, was I wrong?' And I had a very dark hour of the soul … because I had no context for this."

Johnson went on to say that he wouldn't change "The Last Jedi" in retrospect, despite some fans' disapproval.

"There’s nothing I’ve read or seen that’s made me think, 'Oh god, I did kind of mess that up, I would’ve done that differently if I could go back,'" he said. "I still genuinely believe in all the decisions I’ve made."

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