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Movies

Rian Johnson Defends Controversial The Last Jedi Moment

Lucasfilm
By Tim Karan/

Contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Although Rian Johnson may have taken Star Wars into uncharted territory with The Last Jedi, he didn't rewrite the Jedi history books.

Since the sequel to The Force Awakens hit theaters in December, many fans have vehemently expressed outrage at some of the writer and director's decisions when it comes to established facts and precedents in the Star Wars galaxy. Would Luke Skywalker really be capable of killing his own nephew? Would Kylo Ren really walk around with his shirt off?

But a lot of attention has been paid to one sequence in particular, and it's the biggest moment of the entire movie. It happens when Luke uses the Force to project an image of himself across the galaxy to help save what's left of the Resistance. Sure, we've seen deceased Jedis come back as ghosts and hang out at Ewok parties. But we've never seen a Jedi do this.

In response to those who think Johnson just made up this power, the director tweeted a series of photos that prove he didn't. In the photos, Johnson locates the 2011 book Star Wars: The Jedi Path that explains how Luke used an "advanced Force technique" to "create a short-lived duplicate of himself." 

For good measure, Johnson closed out with a perfect clip from The Simpsons. Check it out below.

Johnson has already said that he understands why The Last Jedi may have upset some fans, but he doesn't take the criticism personally. "I'm aware through my own experience that, first of all, the fans are so passionate, they care so deeply—sometimes they care very violently at me on Twitter," he said. "But it's because they care about these things, and it hurts when you're expecting something specific and you don't get it from something that you love. It always hurts, so I don't take it personally if a fan reacts negatively and lashes out on me on Twitter. That's fine. It's my job to be there for that.. Every fan has a list of stuff they want a Star Wars movie to be and they don't want a Star Wars movie to be. You're going to find very few fans out there whose lists line up."

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