'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' director Rian Johnson taunted a campaign to remake the movie

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'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' director Rian Johnson taunted a campaign to remake the movie

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  • A campaign has started online to remake "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," claiming that a group of producers will provide the budget.
  • "The Last Jedi" director Rian Johnson mocked the campaign on Twitter, quoting one of its tweets and saying, "please actually happen."
  • A vocal subset of fans and internet trolls have voiced their disdain for the movie since its release in December, going so far as to hijack its Rotten Tomatoes audience score and send death threats to Johnson.
  • Johnson, meanwhile, is attached to write and direct a new trilogy of "Star Wars" films.

 

A new campaign to remake "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" was heavily mocked on Twitter on Thursday, and the film's director, Rian Johnson, joined in as well.

The campaign seems to have started this month, as a Twitter account by the name of "Remake The Last Jedi" tweeted for the first time on June 14. But it gained attention this week after tweeting over two dozen times on Wednesday and continuing throughout the day on Thursday. More and more people began to take notice, and ridicule, the account and the campaign's website, in which people can pledge a certain amount of money "to have your voice heard."

Johnson quoted a tweet from the campaign on Thursday with the caption: "please please please please pleeeeeeeaaaase please actually happen please please please please please," and numerous praying emojis.

While "The Last Jedi" made over $1 billion worldwide ($620 million in the US) and was a critical hit, a vocal subset of "Star Wars" fans and internet trolls have voiced their disdain for the movie since its release in December, particularly in how it depicts Luke Skywalker and Rey's parentage. A group claimed to hijack the movie's Rotten Tomatoes audience score, which is 46% compared to its 91% critic score. Johnson even said that he received death threats after the movie was released.

Johnson has addressed the fan outcry against "The Last Jedi" in the past. In a December interview with Business Insider, Johnson said he didn't take it personally if fans reacted negatively to the movie because he realized the fans were passionate. But he also said that the "negative stuff" is "not the full picture of the fan."

He went on to say, "[George] Lucas never made a 'Star Wars' movie by sitting down and thinking, 'What do the fans want to see?' And I knew if I wrote wondering what the fans would want, as tempting as that is, it wouldn't work, because people would still be shouting at me, 'F--- you, you ruined 'Star Wars,' and I would make a bad movie. And ultimately, that's the one thing nobody wants."

The "Star Wars" fandom has been particularly toxic since Disney took over the franchise, even driving stars like Daisy Ridley and Kelly Marie Tran off social media after harassment.

But Johnson will probably get the last laugh. The filmmaker is on board to write and direct a new trilogy of "Star Wars" films. Lucasfilm is reportedly putting future standalone films on hold to focus on what the next trilogy will be after "Episode IX," so it's likely that we'll be seeing more Johnson-directed "Star Wars" movies in the near future.

Hopefully no one tries to remake those, too.

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