Rian Johnson Turns To The Sacred Jedi Texts To School ‘Last Jedi’ Complainers
Well, well, well. Look what we have here!Rian Johnson, director ofStar Wars: The Last Jedi, has spent a lot of the promotional time for his hit newStar Warsfilm having to deflect fan outrage. Long story short: some hardcoreStar Warsfans are angry that Johnson took liberties with what they consider to be establishedStar-lore. While some of theseLast Jedicomplaints may be valid, there’s one in particular that Johnson just dropped the mic on. Check it out below. And beware ofspoilers.
Welcome to week 4,034 of People Mad Online AboutThe Last Jedi. Rian Johnson’sStar Warssequel is abox office hitand acritical darling, but someStar Warsfans were not thrilled with a lot of the risky, unexpected choices the filmmaker took with the franchise. One particular problem some people had involved a huge climactic scene in which Luke Skywalker creates what amounts to a Force-hologram of himself in order to confront his former apprentice, Kylo Ren. As far as some fans were concerned, this move was a big no-no – no otherStar Warsfilm had featured a character using the Force like this, therefore Johnson must have just pulled the move out of his rear-end. How dare he!
First and foremost, let me just say: the writer and director of a film is free to pretty much dowhatever the heck they want, as long as the decision is in service of the story. And the ending scene with Luke isdefinitelyin service of the story. But, if you’re a stickler for “established lore,” Johnson just brought out some receipts to put your complaints to bed. In a Twitter thread to end all Twitter threads, Johnson went to a book shelf, pulled down a copy ofStar Wars: The Jedi Path, written by Daniel Wallace and published in 2011, and let the words speak for itself. Here’s the thread:
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson)June 16, 2025
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Cue Luke Skywalker screaming, “The sacred Jedi texts!!”
Anyway, there you have it: creating a Force doppelgänger has precedent inStar Warslore. It even has its own name:Similfuturus, which sound a bitHarry Potter-esque, in all honesty. While thisshouldput this particular argument to bed, I’m sure there will still be some angry fans out there willing to argue that since we’ve never seen this particular move in afilmbefore, it shouldn’t count.
Here’s a full description ofThe Jedi Path, just in case you want more info on this book:
Passed down from Master to apprentice,The Jedi Pathis an ancient training manual that has educated and enlightened generations of Jedi. Within its pages, the Jedi-intraining will discover the history and lore of the Jedi Order, the ways of the Force and how to wield it, the subtle nuances of lightsaber combat, and the dangers of the Dark Side. The only remaining copy in existence, this hallowed tome features handwritten annotated notes by Yoda, Luke Skywalker, Count Dooku, and Darth Sidious, among many others. Created in collaboration with Lucasfilm along with an acclaimedStar Warsauthor and reveredStar Warsillustrators this volume also introduces never-before-seen ships, creatures, characters, and details about theStar Warsgalaxy.
That’s right: this book is intended to be a gosh darnJEDI TRAINING MANUAL, which means all Jedi have the opportunity to learn this one particularSimilfuturusmove. In other words: just enjoy the movie!
(It should be noted that our editor-in-chief Peter Sciretta feels very strongly about this ending and disagrees with all of this!We recently hashed this out in an episode of the /Film Daily podcast, should you want to hear it.)
