I have been a fan my entire life. With the exception of the original A New Hope, I have seen every Star Wars movie in the theaters, several of them multiple times. Many of my close friends are also huge Star Wars fans. We may not always like every decision made by the filmmakers or actors, but in general, we continue to love and support every movie that comes out. Most fans fall into this category. This article is not about them.
I am specifically speaking of that small, vocal minority of “fans” who have made me and every other sane fan ashamed to be associated with them. These are the fans who feel they are entitled to having every film made with their vision in mind, the way they see a character’s arc developing or a story line unraveling. They feel that their opinion is golden because they have read every Timothy Zahn novel and know the technical specification of the most obscure Imperial vehicle. Having an opinion is fine. Thinking yours should outweigh all others is ludicrous.
For the most part, I enjoyed The Last Jedi. Was it perfect? No, far from it. I took issue with the way a lot of the plot points set up in The Force Awakens were basically dismissed in Jedi. Would Luke really have developed into the character we saw in The Last Jedi? Who knows? And really, who cares? It’s fiction. Each screenwriter and director is tasked with crafting the story the best way they see fit. We’re never going to agree with every creative decision they make. But that’s also what makes the films so much fun. We can debate these decisions and question them, but in the end, most of us move on and look towards the next chapter in the ongoing saga.
Shortly after its release, The Last Jedi was the target of a coordinated review-bomb campaign designed to drive down its audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. I found it rather irksome and kinda pathetic that a small group of disillusioned fans would want to purposely torpedo a Star Wars film, regardless of what they thought of it. Whether that campaign was successful or not is debatable (it made $620 million domestically versus the $936 million of The Force Awakens, a 34 percent drop off). When I heard that a lot of these so-called fans wanted The Last Jedi stricken from canon and remade, I laughed (and I wasn’t the only one).
But when I read about death threats against director Rian Johnson, it got really ugly. “It’s balanced by a few things…90 percent of the stuff I got online was not only lovely and encouraging but phenomenally thoughtful,” Johnson said. “The other 10 percent is just loud and gets amplified.” And when actress Kelly Marie Tran, who portrayed the character Rose Tico, was forced to leave Instagram following constant harassment, which included racist taunts (she is American born and of Vietnamese descent) along with death and rape threats, I was absolutely disgusted.
This reprehensible behavior had infiltrated other franchises in the past. And it had reared its ugly head upon The Force Awakens release. The inclusion of Daisy Ridley’s Rey (a female character) and John Boyega’s Finn (a black character) brought out the most ignorant among the series fan base, who organized the mostly unsuccessful #BoycottEpisodeVII movement. Actor Jake Lloyd, who played young Anakin Skywalker in 1999’s The Phantom Menace, revealed that he quit the film industry due to vitriol directed at him by school mates and Star Wars fans in general. Lloyd once remarked, “My entire school life was really a living hell.” And actor Ahmed Best, who portrayed Jar Jar Binks in the prequel trilogy, recently revealed that he considered suicide following years of online hate from fans.
Although this kind of behavior has been relegated to a minority of fans, it has begun to have an effect on the future of the franchise. Many believe the fallout from the Last Jedi backlash contributed, in part, to the depressed performance of the recently released Solo. In turn, Disney has shelved, at least temporarily, any further spin-off films. It has also led to rumors of Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy’s dismissal by her Disney bosses (so far, unfounded). And it is driving away talented filmmakers from helming future installments, such as Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Jack Reacher director Christopher McQuarrie, who recently tweeted to Rian Johnson, “I would have loved to make a Star Wars film someday. I’m cured.”
As fans of the Star Wars franchise, or Marvel, or DC, or any other pop culture property, we feel connected and deeply invested. When these films don’t meet our expectations, disappointment sets in in a way that we don’t experience with non-franchise films. I get it. The Phantom Menace was, in many ways, a big letdown for me and many other fans. But amidst the mess that much of that film was, we still got Darth Maul. We got Mace Windu, and Jango Fett, and the quite good Revenge of the Sith. Plus, it led to a Star Wars resurgence that continues to this day. But when opinion leads to entitlement and harassment and sabotage, fandom has gone too far.
We don’t own these franchises. We are simply privileged to live in a time when we can enjoy these (mostly) incredibly well-made, spectacular films. We have become spoiled by the quality and handling of geek films. Studios and filmmakers now genuinely respect these properties and their fan bases in ways they didn’t in previous decades. Let’s not forget, it wasn’t that long ago that we had to endure Super Mario Bros., Captain America (1990), Masters of the Universe, and The Ewok Adventure. We can not take the modern-era of geek film-making for granted.
I’ll finish up here with some recent Twitter comments made by Guardians of the Galaxy (and genuinely geek-friendly) director James Gunn. As he does so often, he summed up the current state of Star Wars fandom perfectly:
“Critique it. Don’t like it. But spewing hate and bile at individuals just doing their best to tell a story, even if the story sucks, is lame. Don’t watch it! Star Wars (or any movie) may be important to you, but it doesn’t belong to you. If your self-esteem depends on how good you think the current Star Wars is, or your childhood is ruined because you don’t like something in a movie, GO TO THERAPY.”
You make some good points Shawn, I do have to add though that the Rotten Tomatoes score is accurate and was not bombed per RT. So the percentage of fans that did not like movie are not a minority. – Yes there are people that take it way too far, some I would say are just being trolls. I like the new characters. I like the new spinoffs. I’m probly in the minority that liked jar jar! Lol but Luke was my hero growing up. I would bet if Luke’s arc was different the movie would’ve trended better with fans. – I’ve rewatched the movie and didn’t dislike it as much as originally. It just wasn’t the movie / story I was hoping for. To say that I should just be grateful to get a Star Wars movie is too much. I liked Steven Seagal in Above The Law. Should I just be grateful he’s still making movies today and watch them? Lol bwahaha
Seems like people are missing the whole picture here. When I first saw the t-shirts that said ‘The Force is Female” I gathered where they were heading with everything. It was tone, plot, story, character continuance and atmosphere that doomed TLJ and further Star Wars movies. True, there is a limited minority that is taking things to a verbally attacking level, but if i am not mistaken the first thing said to people who pointed out some story flaws was an attack on their person-hood. They were bigots and hateful racists. I despised the movie, and once someone asked me why it wasn’t to hear an opinion, it was to setup a character assassination of me.
The movie was trash. I am not attacking the actors, they worked with what they were given as any good actor should. But when Hamill comes out first and says “That’s not my Luke Skywalker, that’s someone else” and only gets in line after he notices what his comments are now doing to the payday I think we all can be honest and know what happened here.
To modify Mr Gunn “Critique it. Like it. But spewing hate and bile. calling them racist, misogynist losers who don’t agree with you, even if the story is the best, is lame. Watch it again! Buy it! Star Wars (or any movie) may be important to you, but it doesn’t belong to you. If your self-esteem depends on how good you think the current Star Wars is, or your childhood is better because you like something in a movie, GO TO THERAPY.”