Mark Hamill And Rian Johnson Talk About Star Wars: The Last Jedi Haters

Star Wars: The Last Jedi might have enjoyed a wave of critical and commercial success during its theatrical run, but not all Star Wars fans were pleased with The Force Awakens' sequel.

A number of fans expressed their outrage over The Last Jedi, upset by the way the film subverted fan expectations and with the way the film presented legacy characters like Luke. Some fans went even as far as to petition to have The Last Jedi removed from Star Wars canon.

Now, sitting down to speak with CNN, Star Wars legend Mark Hamill and director Rian Johnson talk about the backlash behind The Last Jedi and Star Wars in an age of social media.

In the interview, Johnson and Hamill said that the criticism that fans aired online wasn't fair because everyone has different tastes and fans tend to react very strongly on social media.

"The thing is though, "no" in terms of, "Oh wow, they're right, I shouldn't have done that," but "fair" in terms of every single "Star Wars" thing that comes out, every fan has stuff they love, stuff they hate about it. Every movie has its lovers and its haters. Every single one going back to the originals," Johnson said.

"We were so lucky there wasn't social media when Empire Strikes Back came out," Hamill added.

"Yeah, "Empire" would have gotten roasted. If you look at the criticism of "Last Jedi," can you imagine what they would have said about Luke just getting his ass handed to him by Vader? Oh my God," the director agreed.

According to Hamill, things were much different during the original trilogy, because fans really had to take a lot of effort to have their sentiments reach the cast and crew of the films.

"Yes, exactly," Hamill said. "In those days you really had to take a lot of effort and sit down and say, ‘Dear Mr. Hamill, why did you turn Harrison Ford into a coffee table? This is not right.' Now, it's wallop and send. It's so easy. Pure hatred can be delivered directly to your home in a nanosecond."

Despite the negativity surrounding The Last Jedi online, results from a number of polls and surveys for the film did reveal that quite a number of respondents loved or at least liked The Last Jedi. The backlash only seems bloated online because the film's haters all can get pretty vocal on social media. However, fans should remember that the negativity isn't representative of everyone's reaction towards The Force Awakens sequel.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is currently available on Digital HD, Blu-Ray and DVD.

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