Rian Johnson Pushes Back on Claim He Was "Spooked" by STAR WARS Fan Backlash
The conversation around Star Wars: The Last Jedi just picked up again, and director Rian Johnson is at the center of it. After former Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy claimed that online backlash played a role in Johnson never returning to direct another Star Wars movie, the filmmaker took to social media to shut that idea down fast.
Johnson responded Friday night to an IGN post summarizing Kennedy’s comments, keeping it short and pointed: “Lol zero spooked, sorry.”
The director’s reaction directly challenges Kennedy’s recent exit interview where she revisited why the much talked about Star Wars trilogy Johnson was once attached to never materialized.
Following the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017, Lucasfilm announced plans for Johnson to develop a new trilogy set outside the Skywalker saga. That project quietly faded, while Johnson went on to launch the hugely successful Knives Out franchise instead.
In Kennedy’s telling, the shift wasn’t just about scheduling conflicts. While she acknowledged that Knives Out consumed “a huge amount of his time,” she also pointed to fan reaction as a factor.
“I do believe he got spooked by the online negativity,” Kennedy said. “I think Rian made one of the best Star Wars movies. He’s a brilliant filmmaker and he got spooked.
“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 has previously addressed the situation in a much more practical way. He explained that the trilogy never advanced beyond early conversations and loose ideas. According to him, momentum simply shifted once Knives Out took off.
“Nothing really happened with it,” Johnson said. “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.”
Johnson’s comments suggest that stepping away from Star Wars was more about timing and creative momentum. While The Last Jedi remains one of the most debated films in the franchise, Johnson seems unfazed by the noise and clearly content carving out his own lane.
Whether he ever circles back to a galaxy far, far away is still an open question, but for now, he isn’t losing sleep over what might have been.