Star Wars: Rian Johnson Defends Luke’s ‘The Last Jedi’ Powers on Twitter

One of the most exciting elements of The Last Jedi was filmmaker Rian Johnson‘s willingness to take the series into bold new directions, resulting in both compelling character moments and reveals that effectively heighten the entire series’ mythology. Not everyone agrees with some of the filmmaker’s changes, causing Johnson to give his opinion on one of the most talked-about elements of the film’s finale.

The debate started with a discussion about the debut of an all-new Force power, with Luke being able to project his image across the galaxy to confront Kylo Ren. One side of the argument claimed this was a natural extension of previously displayed elements of the Force, while the other side claimed it was almost a deus ex machina, an unexpected event occurring in a seemingly hopeless situation that solves the situation’s problems.

Once the filmmaker himself got tagged into the conversation, he shared, “I should stay out of this but… were ANY aspects of force use in the OT (force grabbing objects, force ghosts, even the Jedi mind trick) explicitly ‘set up’ before they happened? I’ll take my answer off air.”

The implication of the director’s comments was that, when Luke used his Force powers to grab his lightsaber in the Wampa cave on Hoth or the Emperor used his Force lightning when confronting Luke, these abilities came out of nowhere.

Rather than getting defensive at the mere thought of someone disagreeing with him, he expressed his joy at being able to debate the specifics of the film. Although, he did admit that trying to argue these points on Twitter might not be the most effective, as it’s a medium known for its brevity and not its long-form responses.

The filmmaker confessed, “I know & I don’t take offense at arguing about this stuff at all, to the contrary, I love it! But you’re right, probably not the right forum. (Still, I can’t resist…)”

Given the amount of anger directed specifically at Johnson for the brave directions he took the franchise, his mere willingness to open Twitter at all shows that Lucasfilm has made a great choice in picking someone so enthusiastic about the series to develop a new trilogy of films. A quick scroll through his feed and you see nothing be appreciative or joking comments, none of which are cynical, sarcastic or insulting to those who didn’t enjoy his film.

You can see The Last Jedi in theaters now.

[H/T Twitter, rianjohnson]