Rian Johnson denies allegations of Star Wars spookedness

This critical self-spooking-analysis courtesy of Johnson’s social media, in which he responded to an exit interview given by recently departed—not in a spook way, she just resigned—Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy to Deadline this week. While pretty clear-eyed about her tenure in the job, Kennedy did seem to be doing some small bits of damage control with the interview, including the suggestion that Solo: A Star Wars Story, one of the biggest box office fumbles of her time at Lucasfilm, was basically doomed from the start. (“When you’re into something and you realize fundamentally, conceptually, you cannot replace Han Solo, at least right now.”) That included some comments about one of those big question marks on the schedule of imaginary Star Wars movies that Disney has floated ever since Rise Of Skywalker ended the franchise’s run in theaters in 2019, i.e., the supposed trilogy of films Johnson was supposed to be on the hook for.

Kennedy chalked the non-movement on the three-picture project to two factors: Johnson’s very busy Benoit Blanc schedule, and allegations that he’d been put off the franchise by the divisive reaction to Last Jedi. “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. 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 now (briefly) refuted the assertion of spookedness, responding to an IGN story about Kennedy’s comments that he’s “lol zero spooked, sorry.” Which is, honestly, just a continuation of comments the writer and director has been making for years, acknowledging that, yes, some people had very strong negative reactions to The Last Jedi, but that he had a blast making it, and would love to work in Star Wars again. As to the previous trilogy, Johnson’s version lines up pretty snugly with the rest of Kennedy’s comments: He told Rolling Stone last year that plans for the movies were “all very conceptual” in any case, and then, after Knives Out took off, the project fizzled. “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.”