Riab Johnson had a good weekend. His “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” hit Netflix on Friday, and quickly debuted at #1 on the streamer’s charts. The film is also earning the best reviews of the series.
In fact, ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ closes out a trilogy of films Johnson started after he directed “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” in 2017 – a film that is still inspiring contentious debate to this day.
We all know how the story goes. J.J. Abrams’ “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was a safe, nostalgia-fueled trilogy opener in 2015, which resulted in a massive hit for Disney and set up a template for Johnson to take over in the second film, ‘The Last Jedi.’
However, and despite strong reviews, Johnson throwing himself into risk-taking with unabashed glee, dismantling familiar lore and themes and committing to rather bold creative decisions backfired with the fanbase. Off with his head, they said.
Speaking with Polygon, Johnson continues to defend ‘The Last Jedi’—and not only that: he argues that for Star Wars to succeed, it must take the very kinds of risks he took, backlash be damned.
Having grown up a Star Wars fan, I know that thing where something challenges it, and I know the recoil against that. I know how there can be infighting in the world of Star Wars. But I also know that the worst sin is to handle it with kid gloves.
The worst sin is to be afraid of doing anything that shakes it up. Because every Star Wars movie going back to Empire and onward shook the box and rattled fans, and got them angry, and got them fighting, and got them talking about it. And then for a lot of them, got them loving it and coming around on it eventually.
Post-’The Last Jedi’, Johnson had actually been hired by Lucasfilm to start a brand new Star Wars trilogy, but he recently told THR that, regarding the once-announced trilogy, “that plan is effectively dead.” Absolutely nobody was surprised by this development.
For a large portion of the “Star Wars” fanbase, ‘The Last Jedi’ crossed a line they never believed the series would approach. Johnson’s bold subversions—Luke Skywalker rejecting the Jedi legacy, the handling of Rey’s parentage, the treatment of legacy characters, and the film’s apparent dismissal of long-held lore—felt to some like a betrayal rather than a reinvention.
There was simply no way Johnson would be given the keys to another trilogy without the approval of Bob Iger, despite Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy’s greenlight. As for his claim that Star Wars needs more risk-taking, you certainly won’t hear me complaining about that.
Edward Berger seems to have settled on what comes next. His Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, is now holding casting calls, with production eyed for January.