Rian Johnson Says Backlash to ‘The Last Jedi’ Gave Him a ‘Dark Hour of the Soul’

More than a month after “The Last Jedi” was released, Rian Johnson still finds himself defending his film. A segment of diehard “Star Wars” fans haven’t exactly taken kindly to “The Last Jedi,” with some even launching an ill-fated petition to have it removed from the canon; Johnson has been diplomatic in his responses to the backlash, though he now admits that it initially gave him a “dark hour of the soul.”

“The crazy thing is, I had no perspective on these tweets. I had no perspective in terms of how big a group of people this was, even what they were upset about specifically,” Johnson said during an appearance on the /Filmcast. “Over the next few weeks, I was able to contextualize it and feel much better about it. But at the time, I thought, ‘Oh my god, does everybody hate this? Did I totally mess up, was I wrong?’ And I had a very dark hour of the soul… because I had no context for this.”

Even with hindsight being 20/20, Johnson says he wouldn’t actually change “The Last Jedi” in any meaningful way. “There’s nothing I’ve read or seen that’s made me think, ‘Oh god, I did kind of mess that up, I would’ve done that differently if I could go back,’” he said. “I still genuinely believe in all the decisions I’ve made.”