Opinion: Six Months Later- The Last Jedi Criticism and a Toxic Fandom

There is a saying that Star Wars fans like to say to each other; it goes something like, “you can’t be a Star Wars fan without hating Star wars.” It’s an interesting time to be a Star Wars fan in this day and age. There has never been a fandom like it, a fan base as wide as it is deep. Every film with the exception of the most recent film, Solo, grossed record amounts of money at the box office. And yet a fan could only watch the movies and not know 75 percent of the entire canon Star Wars story. There are books, comics, video games, and TV shows alongside the main saga and anthology films.

Because Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi recently hit Netflix close to six months after it’s initial theatrical release, why not examine the toxic and mostly negative response to the movie. Because while there has never been a better time to be a Star Wars fan, it  is also the worst time because of the toxic nature of the fandom and the consequences of social media.

Just in the past few months, and ever since The Last Jedi came out, Star Wars fans have shown their worst, particularly toxic, side. Actress, Kelly Marie Tran, who played Rose in The Last Jedi deleted her Instagram account due to constant harassment from Star Wars fans angry at her involvement and her character in The Last Jedi. There was a rebuke from both fans and critics of the film for the behavior of these particular subset of Star Wars fans. Those who are incapable of separating the real person from the fictional character. It only makes matters worse that Tran herself was a such a positive person and that being in Star Wars was a dream for her.

 The Last Jedi director, Rian Johnson can’t make a simple tweet that isn’t at all related to  Star Wars without some random user making a derogatory remark about the film. In the Reddit Star Wars subreddit, which has close to 900,000 subscribers, comments from people liking The Last Jedi are outnumbered  and met with heavy, sometimes toxic criticism, and posts pop up every day complaining about the film, calling it a disgrace to the series and bemoaning Disney buying the rights from Star Wars creator George Lucas, believing the company has ruined their childhood.

Perhaps the most preposterous development since the film came out was a Twitter account dedicated to remaking The Last Jedi. The account has over 7,000 followers and on its website, whoever runs it is accepting donations to cover the budget needed to remake the film, despite saying there are producers willing to back the project. Close to $400,000 has been pledged according to the website, not even close to the $275 million needed. Add the account saying that the movie will be written by the fans and will include the hated character from the prequels, Jar-Jar Binks, and you got yourself one shady and probably not serious Twitter account. But it speaks to just how much some people hate The Last Jedi and what they are willing to do to stain its name.

Back in the early 2000s when the much maligned prequels were coming out and despite heavy criticism from both fans and critics, there were no demands from fans that the films be remade. Perhaps George Lucas was fortunate that social media was not as prevalent as it is today or maybe there would have been a Remake the Prequels Twitter account. However, fans even without the simplicity of Twitter or Facebook managed to harass the actors, most notably Jake Lloyd, who portrayed young Anakin in The Phantom Menace.

Now to pretend that The Last Jedi should be immune to criticism is silly and impossible to argue. The subplot involving the before mentioned Rose and former stormtrooper Finn is ham-fisted in what it is trying to say and does not meet the high mark the rest of the film sets. There is also the misplaced and ill-timed humor that undercuts the film. However, to argue that The Last Jedi reaches the lows of the prequels is just as foolish. What it does well, The Last Jedi does better than any other Star Wars film, from the Kylo Ren-Rey subplot, how it handles Luke and how visually stunning the film is. People will shrug these points off, especially when it comes to Luke, and say that the positives can’t displace the negatives.

With the next episode of the Star Wars saga, Episode VIIII coming within the next two years, there is plenty for the toxicity of the response to The Last Jedi to linger in fan’s minds and impact Disney’s decision of whether or not to continue making Star Wars films, especially since Solo bombed in theaters. Six months after it came out, The Last Jedi has brought out the worst in Star Wars fans, whether they will impact the franchise in a manner like Remake The Last Jedi Twitter account wants to is a question they will have to answer for themselves. Because, at least for me, more Star Wars is always the right way to go.