Rian Johnson Rejects Kathleen Kennedy's Claim That He Got "Spooked By Online Negativity" Surrounding 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi'
Rian Johnson rejected Kathleen Kennedy’s that he got “spooked by online negativity” and that’s why he did not return to Lucasfilm to do his planned trilogy.
In an exit interview with Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr., Kennedy was asked about Johnson returning to Lucasfilm and making the trilogy that was announced back in 2017.
Kennedy answered, “Once he made the Netflix deal and went off to start doing the Knives Out films, that has occupied a huge amount of his time. That’s the other thing that happens here. After Shawn and I started talking about Star Wars, Stranger Things kicks in and he was completely consumed for a while by that. That’s what happened with Rian.”
However, she then added, “And then I do believe he got spooked by the online negativity. I think Rian made one of the best Star Wars movies. He’s a brilliant filmmaker and he got spooked.”
She then claimed this is a common experience to Star Wars creators, “This is the rough part. When people come into this space, I have every filmmaker and actors say to me, ‘What’s going to happen?’ They’re a little scared.”
Johnson rejected the claim writing on X, “lol zero spooked, sorry.”
Johnson has addressed why he didn’t return to do the trilogy in numerous interviews. In 2025, he told Rolling Stone, “Nothing really happened with it. We had a great time working together, and they said, “Let’s keep doing it.” I said, “Great!” I would kick ideas around with Kathy. The short version is Knives Out happened. I went off and made Knives Out, and was off to the races, busy making murder mysteries.”
“It’s the sort of thing if, down the line, there’s an opportunity to do it, or do something else in Star Wars, I would be thrilled. But right now I’m just doing my own stuff, and pretty happy,” he said.
In that same interview he also commented about the negative reaction to The Last Jedi saying, “In the moment, it’s a complicated chain of reactions to it. It never feels good to have anybody coming after you on the Internet, and especially coming after you saying things that I think I very much do not agree with about a thing I made and put a lot of heart and soul into.”
“But at the same time, having grown up a Star Wars fan ultimately let me contextualize it and feel at peace with it in many different ways. Just remembering, going back on one level to arguing on the playground about Star Wars as a kid. And I was in college when the prequels came out. My friends and I were Prequel Hate Central. Everyone was ruthless at the time. And of course now the prequels are embraced.”
“I’m not saying that as a facile, “Oh, things will flip around in 20 years, you’ll see!” It’s more that this push and pull, and this hatred to stuff that seems new, this is all part of being a Star Wars fan. Culture-war garbage aside, I think that essential part of it is a healthy part,” he concluded.
Johnson made similar comments to The Independent in May 2025. He said, “What happened? Knives Out! I mean, I kind of went down the murder mystery rabbit hole – I’m focused on making other stuff. But that wouldn’t rule out it happening down the line. If I get back in the Star Wars universe someday, I’d be the happiest person.”
Going back to 2022, Johnson said it was an issue of scheduling telling Variety, ““I had such an amazing experience making ‘The Last Jedi.’ It’s entirely a matter of scheduling. For me, putting this [‘Glass Onion’] out and making the next one of these…the answer is I don’t know.”
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I mean wtf would anyone want to do a SW movie? Anything original or actually good would be blocked by some Lucasfilm committee, you’ll have various weirdos come and go: “How bout the bisexual community?! We need more trannies in SW too!”
And to top it off, it’ll likely be a flop because most fans have abandoned ship long ago.
I would love to see some dude absolutely pummel him with a perfect, dead solid punch to that smug faggy face. Just, completely destroy that whack-a-mole.