By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Here’s something that would get me thrown out of the nearest airlock on a Star Destroyer: I really like it The Last Jedi. It’s a flawed film, but I’ll always give it credit for being the only film in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy to take some creative risks. On paper, I understand what fans didn’t like: Rey being a nobody, Luke being a loser artist who dies at the end, the whole Canto Bight story, and so on. However, this film was the beginning of the end of the franchise, which is a big indication of how a lot fans hate it.
Likewise, I spent years wondering where it went wrong. I’m still enjoying it The Last Jedibut I can’t help but wonder why so many fans have turned off. Today, I believe I found the answer. It is known that George Lucas created Star Wars as a kind of modern mythology, which builds on the famous epics of the past. Rian Johnson tried to do the same thing with his hated Star Wars sequel. But based on the old discussions, there seems to be a very fundamental difference. Lucas was writing fairy tales for children, and Johnson was writing fairy tales for adults, creating tonal whiplash throughout our beloved galaxy far, far away.
The Hero’s Journey Will End
Back in 2018, Rian Johnson did an interview The Hollywood Reporter about The Last Jedi. One of the themes they covered was what fans and even Mark Hamill hated about the film: the portrayal of Luke Skywalker as a depressed and battered old man who threw his own lightsaber away and destroyed the Jedi of the Old Republic. In this story, Johnson evoked the idea of the “old hero myth” on which Star Wars is based. Notably, George Lucas was heavily influenced by Joseph Campbell, who famously noted how all the famous pieces of literature wrote the same stages of the same heroic journey.
Johnson suggested that the previous Star Wars films followed earlier parts of the hero’s journey, such as King Arthur pulling the sword from the stone and uniting kingdoms. But “when it talks about the hero’s life as he enters middle age and beyond, it always starts to enter dark places. And there’s a reason for that: It’s because fairy tales aren’t made to sell action figures,” he said. “Fictions are made to reflect the most difficult changes we face in life.” Therefore, The Last Jedi he shows Luke at the end of his journey, and his dark, haunted personality reflects his inner struggle.
Right With Mythology, Wrong With Star Wars
After all, Rian Johnson is right about this. The hero’s journey of ancient legends takes its heroes to dark places, and what Luke Skywalker goes through certainly reflects his own stressful journey. Based on Johnson’s quote, it seems like he wanted Luke to resonate with people who grew up watching Star Wars. Which is to say, now that we’re middle-aged (or older), we’re all dealing with our own inner struggles and we’d love to see those struggles reflected in our favorite hero. Unfortunately, this represents a disaster Misunderstanding why fans love these movies and how mythology works in Star Wars.
First, at the risk of stating the obvious, no one comes to a Star Wars movie because they want to see something dark and depressing. If we wanted to be angry, we wouldn’t drive to the theater; we would just scroll on our phones! Second, and more importantly, Johnson is wrong about how mythology has historically worked in Star Wars. In a 2020 interview with GQ, The Mandalorian producer Jon Favreau revealed a piece of advice he received from George Lucas: “The real audience for all stories and all fairy tales is grown children.”
Star Wars, Like Wu-Tang, For Kids
This is where termination comes in. Lucas deliberately aimed his Star Wars films at children, which is why the prequels had fart jokes and slapstick Jar-Jar Binks jokes. The director was betting that this approach would work for everyone: real kids who wanted to be like Luke Skywalker and the young at heart who remembered what it was like to be young. These groups enjoy seeing Luke recreate the early days of King Arthur (getting the magic sword from the wizard, attacking the castle, saving the princess, etc.) because the would-be Jedi recreates the coolest and funnest part of the legend.
Johnson thought that older Star Wars fans would enjoy seeing Luke Skywalker’s Arthur-like descent. In the legends, Arthur is betrayed by his friend, his wife, and his illegitimate child. The Last Jedi it even shows Luke dying like Arthur did, dying after a battle and a hot start. But the fans rejected the film because they didn’t want to see the sad end of the hero’s journey. They wanted to see more of what made them love Star Wars in the first place: heroes overcoming great odds and saving the entire galaxy from evil.
Is There New Hope?
Also, Rian Johnson was not wrong about how fairy tales show the different stages of life and the different struggles we all face. But he was wrong about what audiences really wanted from their favorite sci-fi franchise. Sure, the hero’s journey almost always ends in disaster, but we don’t want too much misery from our goofy pew-pew laser movie. We certainly don’t want to see old, depressed people; we get enough of that in the mirror every morning! He tried to deal with our inner problems instead of our inner child, and it was all downhill from there.
Now, for better or worse, the fate of Star Wars is in the hands of Dave Filoni, Lucasfilm’s new honcho. Filoni studied directly under George Lucas, so he may be able to avoid some of the rookie mistakes that Rian Johnson made when it comes to creating modern day fiction. Based on the performance of The Mandalorian and the Groguhowever, it may be too late. Now, we may all be watching Star Wars experience the final stage of its heroic journey: the part where it dies.
