Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Writer-director Rian Johnson

In October 2012, Star Wars creator George Lucas sold his production company Lucasfilm to The Walt Disney Company. Disney announced a new trilogy of Star Wars films.[33] J. J. Abrams was named director of the first episode in the trilogy, The Force Awakens, in January 2013.[34][35] In June 2014, director Rian Johnson was reported to be in talks to write and direct its sequel, Episode VIII, and to write a treatment for the third film, Episode IX, with Ram Bergman producing both films.[36][37] Johnson confirmed in August 2014 that he would direct Episode VIII.[38] In September, filmmaker Terry Gilliam asked Johnson about what it felt like to take over something made famous by another filmmaker. Johnson responded:

I'm just starting into it, but so far, honestly, it's the most fun I've ever had writing. It's just joyous. But also for me personally, I grew up not just watching those movies but playing with those toys, so as a little kid, the first movies I was making in my head were set in this world. A big part of it is that direct connection, almost like an automatic jacking back into childhood in a weird way. But I don't know, ask me again in a few years and we'll be able to talk about that.[39]

In January 2015, Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that Episode VIII would be released in 2017.[40] In December, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said "we haven't mapped out every single detail [of the sequel trilogy] yet" and that Abrams was collaborating with Johnson and that Johnson would in turn work with (then) Episode IX director Colin Trevorrow to ensure a smooth transition.[41] Abrams is an executive producer along with Jason McGatlin and Tom Karnowski.[42]

Carrie Fisher died in December 2016. Lucasfilm announced the title for episode VIII as Star Wars: The Last Jedi, on January 23, 2017.[43] Prior to the release of episode IX Carrie's brother Todd Fisher revealed the view that: “She was going to be the big payoff in the final film,” “She was going to be the last Jedi, so to speak.”[44]

The Last Jedi story begins immediately after The Force Awakens.[28] Johnson had his story group watch films such as Twelve O'Clock High (1949), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Gunga Din (1939), Three Outlaw Samurai (1964), Sahara (1943), and Letter Never Sent (1960) for inspiration while developing ideas.[28][45] He felt it was difficult to work on the film while The Force Awakens was being finished.[28]

Johnson wrote the scene with the mirrored versions of Rey to symbolise her search for identity; when she asks for a vision of her parents, she sees only herself.[46] Rey learns that her parents were "nobodies" as it would be "the hardest thing" she and the audience could hear; Johnson likened the scene to Luke learning that Darth Vader is his father in The Empire Strikes Back (1980). He said: "The easiest thing for Rey and the audience to hear is, Oh yeah, you’re so-and-so's daughter. That would be wish fulfillment and instantly hand her a place in this story on a silver platter. The hardest thing for her is to hear she’s not going to get that easy answer ... You’re going to have to find the strength to stand on your own two feet and define yourself in this story."[46]

During production, Hamill expressed disagreement with the direction of his character, Luke Skywalker, feeling Luke's disillusioned state was at odds with his character.[47] Hamill later said he regretted making his initial misgivings public and compared his disagreements to his clashes with George Lucas during the filming of Return of the Jedi (1983).[47]

In September 2015, Disney shortlisted the female cast members to Gina Rodriguez, Tatiana Maslany, and Olivia Cooke.[48] Later that month, Benicio del Toro confirmed his involvement in the film, but denied that he was playing a villain,[49][50] and Mark Hamill was also confirmed.[5] Joaquin Phoenix was also courted to portray the role of DJ, but would end up passing on the offer.[51] In October 2015, Gugu Mbatha-Raw was rumored to have been cast in the film.[52] In November, Kennedy announced at the London premiere of The Force Awakens that the entire cast would return for Episode VIII, along with "a handful" of new cast members.[6] In February 2016, at the start of filming, it was confirmed that Laura Dern and Kelly Marie Tran had been cast in undisclosed roles.[15] In April 2017, at Star Wars Celebration Orlando, Lucasfilm announced that Tran plays Resistance maintenance worker Rose Tico, which Johnson described as the film's largest new role.[12][13] To keep Frank Oz's return as Yoda a secret, producers excluded Oz's name in the billing for the film's pre-release marketing and ensured that Oz stayed on set during filming.[16]

Some filming locations: The island of Skellig Michael in Ireland (top), Salar de Uyuni, a salt flat in Bolivia (middle), and the city of Dubrovnik, in Croatia (bottom)

Second unit photography began during pre-production at Skellig Michael in Ireland on September 14, 2015, due to the difficulties of filming at that location during other seasons. It would have lasted four days,[53][54][55] but filming was canceled for the first day due to poor weather and rough conditions.[56] In November 2014, Ivan Dunleavy, chief executive of Pinewood Studios, confirmed that the film would be shot at Pinewood,[57] with additional filming in Mexico.[9] In September 2015, del Toro revealed that principal photography would begin in March 2016;[49] Kennedy later said filming would begin in January 2016.[6] The production began work on the 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios on November 15, 2015.[58] Rick Heinrichs served as production designer.[59]

In January 2016, production of Episode VIII was delayed until February due to script rewrites.[60] Filming was in danger of being delayed further due to an upcoming strike between the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television and the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union.[61] On February 10, 2016, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed that principal photography had begun[62] under the working title Space Bear.[28] Additional filming took place in Dubrovnik, Croatia from March 9 to 16,[63][64] as well as in Ireland in May.[65] Malin Head in County Donegal and a mountain headland, Ceann Sibeal in County Kerry, served as additional filming locations.[66] To increase the scenes' intimacy Driver and Ridley were both present when filming Kylo and Rey's Force visions.[67] Location filming for the battle scenes on the planet Crait took place in July at the Salar de Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia.[68]

Principal photography wrapped on July 22, 2016,[69] though as of early September, Nyong'o had not filmed her scenes.[70] In February 2017, it was announced that sequences from the film were shot in IMAX.[71] Production designer Rick Heinrichs said the original script called for 160 sets, double what might be expected, but that Johnson did some "trimming and cutting". Ultimately, 125 sets were created on 14 sound stages at Pinewood Studios.[72]

According to creature designer Neal Scanlan, The Last Jedi has more practical effects than any Star Wars film, with 180 to 200 creatures created with practical effects, some cut from the final edit.[73] For Yoda's appearance in the film as a Force ghost, the character was created using puppetry, as was done in the original Star Wars trilogy (as opposed to computer-generated imagery, which was used to create Yoda in most of the prequel trilogy).[74]

The film contains a reference to the Terry Gilliam film Brazil (1985) in its Canto Bight sequence, in which Finn and Rose are arrested for committing parking violation "27B/6".[75]

In July 2013, Kennedy announced at Star Wars Celebration Europe that John Williams would return to score the Star Wars sequel trilogy.[76][77] Williams confirmed his assignment for The Last Jedi at a Tanglewood concert in August 2016,[78] stating he would begin recording the score "off and on" in December 2016 until March or April 2017.[79] On February 21, 2017, it was confirmed that recording was underway, with both Williams and William Ross conducting the sessions.[80][20]

In lieu of a traditional spotting session with Johnson, Williams was provided a temp track of music from his previous film scores as a reference for scoring The Last Jedi.[81] The score briefly quotes "Aquarela do Brasil" by Ary Barroso in its "Canto Bight" track as another reference to the film Brazil. It also contains a brief quote of Williams performing[82] his own theme for The Long Goodbye (co-composed by Johnny Mercer) during Finn and Rose's escape, but this is not in the official soundtrack release.[83]

The official soundtrack album was released by Walt Disney Records on December 15, 2017 in digipak CD, digital formats, and streaming services.[84]

On September 19, 2017, Australia Post released a set of stamp packs.[93] A set of eight promotional postage stamps were released on October 12, in the UK by the Royal Mail with artwork by Malcolm Tween.[94]

Several tie-in books were released on the same day of the North American release of the movie, including The Last Jedi: Visual Dictionary, and various children's reading and activity books. Related novelizations included the prequel book Cobalt Squadron, and the Canto Bight, a collection of novellas about the Canto Bight Casino.[95]

As with The Force Awakens, there is no official tie-in game for The Last Jedi, in favor of integrating content from the film into other Star Wars video games,[96] including Star Wars Battlefront II, which introduced various content from the film, during the second week of the game's first "season".[97]

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Star Wars: The Last Jedi digitally in HD and 4K via digital download and Movies Anywhere on March 13, 2018, with an Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD physical release on March 27. It was the first Star Wars film to be released on the Ultra HD Blu-ray format.[98] The 4K version of the film was later re-released in "The Skywalker Saga" 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray box set on March 31, 2020.[99]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi grossed $620.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $712.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.333 billion.[4] It had a worldwide opening of $450.8 million, the seventh-biggest of all time, including $40.6 million that was attributed to IMAX screenings, the second biggest for IMAX.[100][101] It was estimated that the film would need to gross $800 million worldwide to break even;[102] Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $417.5 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues, making it the most profitable release of 2017.[2]

Pre-sale tickets went on sale in the United States on October 9, 2017, and as with The Force Awakens and Rogue One, ticket service sites such as Fandango had their servers crash due to heavy traffic and demand.[103] In the United States and Canada, industry tracking had The Last Jedi grossing around $200 million from 4,232 theaters in its opening weekend.[104] The film made $45 million from Thursday night previews, the second-highest amount ever (behind The Force Awakens' $57 million).[105] It went on to make $104.8 million on its first day (including previews), and $220 million over the weekend, both the second-highest amounts of all time.[106] The opening weekend figure included an IMAX opening-weekend of $25 million, the biggest IMAX opening of the year, and the second biggest ever behind The Force Awakens.[107]

After dropping by 76% on its second Friday, the worst Friday-to-Friday drop in the series, the film fell by a total of 67.5% in its second weekend, grossing $71.6 million. It was the largest second-weekend drop of the series, although it remained atop the box office.[108] The three day total was the 14th biggest second weekend of all time.[109] It grossed an additional $27.5 million on Christmas Day, the second biggest Christmas Day gross of all time behind The Force Awakens ($49.3 million), for a four-day weekend total of $99 million.[110] It made $52.4 million in its third weekend, again topping the box office. It also brought its domestic total to $517.1 million, overtaking fellow Disney vehicle Beauty and the Beast (2017) as the highest of 2017.[111] It was the sixth biggest third weekend of all time.[112] It had the seventh biggest New Year's Day gross of all time with $14.3 million, bringing the four day total to $66.8 million.[113][114] It grossed $23.7 million and was surpassed the following weekend by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) (which was in its third week) and Insidious: The Last Key (2018).[115]

In its first two days of release the film made $60.8 million from 48 markets. The top countries were the United Kingdom ($10.2 million), Germany ($6.1 million), France ($6 million), Australia ($5.6 million), and Brazil ($2.5 million).[116] By the end of the weekend, the film made $230.8 million outside the US and Canada, the ninth-highest of all time. This included $36.7 million in the United Kingdom, $23.6 million in Germany, $18.1 million in France, $15.9 million in Australia, $14.4 million in Japan, $8.5 million in Russia, $8.3 million in Spain, $7.2 million in Brazil, $7 million in Italy and Mexico, $6.0 million in Sweden, and $5.1 million in South Korea.[117] On its second weekend, it grossed $76.1 million overseas and became the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year in Europe.[118] As of January 21, the largest markets outside of the United States and Canada are the United Kingdom ($109.3 million), Germany ($79.8 million), France ($63.5 million), Japan ($60.8 million), and Australia ($43.5 million).[119]

The film had a $28.7 million opening weekend in China, the lowest for a Star Wars film in that country since 2005. Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened to $52 million two years prior and Rogue One, which featured Chinese stars Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen, opened to $30 million in 2016. The Last Jedi added only $7 million during the week, to reach a total of $34.2 million in its first seven days. A week after its debut, China's movie exhibitors dropped the film's showtimes by 92 percent, from its 34.5% percent share of the territory's total screenings.[120][121][122][123] The film grossed $910,000 in its third weekend, dropping to ninth place at the Chinese box office, overshadowed by new releases including Bollywood film Secret Superstar (2017), Hollywood films Ferdinand (2017) and Wonder (2017), and Chinese film A Better Tomorrow 2018. The Last Jedi grossed $41 million in China, as of January 21, 2018.[124]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 90% with an average score of 8.1/10, based on 474 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Star Wars: The Last Jedi honors the saga's rich legacy while adding some surprising twists — and delivering all the emotion-rich action fans could hope for."[125] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 84 out of 100 based on 56 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[126] Metacritic analysis found the film was the 25nd-most mentioned film on "best of the year" film rankings[127] and the 22nd-most mentioned on "best of the decade" film rankings.[128]

Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film four stars out of four, praising the surprises and risks that it took, writing that "The movie works equally well as an earnest adventure full of passionate heroes and villains and a meditation on sequels and franchise properties ... [The film] is preoccupied with questions of legacy, legitimacy and succession, and includes multiple debates over whether one should replicate or reject the stories and symbols of the past."[129] Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, praising the cast and the direction: "You're in hyper-skilled hands with Johnson who makes sure you leave the multiplex feeling euphoric. The middle part of the current trilogy, The Last Jedi ranks with the very best Star Wars epics (even the pinnacle that is The Empire Strikes Back) by pointing the way ahead to a next generation of skywalkers – and, thrillingly, to a new hope."[130]

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying, "Star Wars: The Last Jedi ... doesn't pack quite the same emotional punch [as The Force Awakens] and it lags a bit in the second half, [but] this is still a worthy chapter in the Star Wars franchise, popping with exciting action sequences, sprinkled with good humor, and containing more than a few nifty 'callbacks' to previous characters and iconic moments."[131] For The Hollywood Reporter, Todd McCarthy said, "Loaded with action and satisfying in the ways its loyal audience wants it to be, writer-director Rian Johnson's plunge into George Lucas' universe is generally pleasing even as it sometimes strains to find useful and/or interesting things for some of its characters to do."[132]

Will Gompertz, arts editor of BBC News, gave the film four stars out of five, writing "Rian Johnson ... has not ruined your Christmas with a turkey. His gift to you is a cracker, a blockbuster movie packed with invention, wit, and action galore."[133] Mark Kermode, British film critic, gave the film four stars out of five saying Johnson "proves himself the master of the balancing act, keeping the warring forces of this intergalactic franchise in near-perfect harmony."[134] The unpredictability of the plot was appreciated by reviewers such as Alex Leadbeater of Screen Rant, who commented specifically that the death of Snoke was "the best movie twist in years".[135] Creator of the franchise George Lucas, who was not involved with the film's production, described The Last Jedi as "beautifully made" shortly after its release.[136][137] His reaction to Star Wars: The Force Awakens was generally more negative.[138][139]

Conversely, Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote, "Despite a few stunning decorative touches (most of which involve the color red) and that brief central sequence of multiple Reys, the movie comes off as a work that's ironed out, flattened down, appallingly purified. Above all, it delivers a terrifyingly calculated consensus storytelling, an artificial universality that is achieved, in part, through express religious references...including an Abrahamic one, a New Testament one, and some skillfully placed crosses."[140] Kate Taylor of The Globe and Mail gave the film two stars out of four, saying the film suffered from too many new additions and writing, "Nifty new animals, a maturing villain, a flagging heroine, muffled humour – as it seeks to uphold a giant cultural legacy, this unfolding trilogy struggles to maintain a balance that often seems just out of reach."[141] Owen Gleiberman of Variety criticized the film for being too derivative of the past movies by saying that "it's now repeating things that have already been repeated. The rebels-up-against-it plot, with our heroes worn down to the nub of their fighting spirit, feels like a rehash of what we went through a year ago in Rogue One, and the attempts to echo the look and mood and darkening design of The Empire Strikes Back now make clear that the new trilogy is an official monument to nostalgia."[142]

Audience reception measured by scientific polling methods was highly positive.[143][144][145] Audiences randomly polled by CinemaScore on opening day gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[106][144] Surveys from SurveyMonkey and comScore's PostTrak found that 89% of audience members graded the film positively, including a rare five-star rating.[104][146][147]

User-generated scores at Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic were more negative. At Rotten Tomatoes, 42% of users rated the film 2.67 stars or higher out of 5,[125] while at Metacritic, the average user score is 4.3 out of 10.[126] Audience scores on such sites require only registration and do not ensure that contributing voters have seen the film.[148] Several reviewers speculated that coordinated vote brigading from internet groups and bots contributed to the low scores.[149][150][151] Quartz noted that some new accounts gave negative ratings to both The Last Jedi and Thor: Ragnarok (2017), while Bleeding Cool stated that reviews for Thor: Ragnarok had tapered off but then "skyrocketed".[152][153] In response to tampering claims shortly after the film's release, a Fandango executive stated that Rotten Tomatoes detected no unusual activity on The Last Jedi aside from a noticeable "uptick in the number of written user reviews".[154][155] In 2019, a Rotten Tomatoes spokesperson said the film had been "seriously targeted" by a review-bombing campaign.[156]

Reviewers characterized The Last Jedi as divisive among audiences.[157] Emily VanDerWerff of Vox found that dissatisfied fans saw the film as too progressive, disliked its humor, plot, or character arcs, or felt betrayed that it ignored fan theories.[149] Other reviewers made similar observations.[158][159][160] Particularly divisive was the reveal that Rey's parents are insignificant;[149][158][160] many fans had expected her to be Luke's daughter or to share a lineage with another character from the original trilogy.[161][162][163] There was also sentiment that Snoke's character was underdeveloped and that Luke's actions contradicted his previous heroic portrayal.[160][164][165] Reviewers stated that fan theories were held so strongly among some viewers that it was difficult for them to accept different stories,[158][160][165] but that other viewers appreciated the film's action, tone, and deviation from Star Wars tradition.[158][160]