Rian Johnson Has NSFW Response to Star Wars: The Last Jedi Diversity Haters

There are a lot of questions about the future of the Star Wars franchise after nearly every movie released has received mixed feedback from fans ever since Disney purchased Lucasfilm. And to be fair, nearly every Star Wars movie ever released has proven to be divisive on some level, from the shocking twist in The Empire Strikes Back to the politically-focused prequel trilogy and, lately, the reaction to Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

And while fans who don’t like that movie for their own personal reasons, others have railed against the diversity presented in the movie; raging against the film featuring too many women or that people of color have prominent roles. And director Rian Johnson has some strong words for the people who lashed out at the diversity of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

While speaking at a live event for WIRED alongside actor Chris Evans for their movie Knives Out, Johnson spoke about the people who whine about “SJWs” in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

“If someone’s responding to diversity negatively, f— ’em,” Johnson said, prompting Evans to nod affirmatively and point. “If anyone didn’t like the movie, I’m not saying that’s why they didn’t like it… It wasn’t surprising at all to me, I grew up as a Star Wars fan. And I grew up- I was in my twenties when the prequels came out and this whole idea that it’s all been sunshine and roses and suddenly everybody’s yelling at each other is baffling to me.”

Johnson added, “And I feel like people care deeply about Star Wars, and every single person has a slightly different version of what they think Star Wars is. And so much of the fun of it is arguing about it. Since we were kids, right? On the playground, you’re yelling at your friends about who would win in a fight… It’s part and parcel about the passion of being a Star Wars fan.”

Johnson goes on to say that “Star Wars fans are the best fans in the whole world,” and that most of his personal interactions on social media are positive, even from people who didn’t like the movie.

The filmmaker has been tapped to produce his own spinoff trilogy in the Star Wars universe, separate from the events of the Skywalker Saga. With Kevin Feige also due to produce a film in the franchise and Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss cancelling their project, it’s unclear what the future holds for Star Wars.

There’s currently a Star Wars movie scheduled to release in December 2022, though there’s no concrete announcement about who will be making the film at this time.

The next film on the schedule will serve as the end of the Skywalker Saga, with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker releasing in theaters on December 20th.