By Filmmaker Rian Johnson’s “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” hit Netflix on Friday, the title drawing the second-best critical and the best audience reviews for the franchise to date.
It closes out a trilogy of films Johnson has been working on since he directed “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” in 2017 – a film that is still a major point of debate among the fandom.
J.J. Abrams’ “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” played it extremely safe and didn’t break any new ground, relying instead on a nostalgia play with a familiar formula to appeal to the absolute widest possible audience.
‘Last Jedi’, however, has more of an author’s voice to it. It took risks – deconstructing elements of the lore and themes and making some strong choices that sometimes work and sometimes don’t, and certainly made some fans incredibly upset.
Since then, the franchise hasn’t done much in the way of experimenting again aside from “Andor,” a work that tried a major tonal shake-up and has a distinct voice to it. Still, even that highly acclaimed series has its haters.
Speaking with Polygon recently, Johnson says “Star Wars” needs to take more risks because that’s what keeps it engaging:
“Having grown up a Star Wars fan, I know that thing where something challenges it, and I know the recoil against that. I know how there can be infighting in the world of Star Wars. But I also know that the worst sin is to handle it with kid gloves.
The worst sin is to be afraid of doing anything that shakes it up. Because every Star Wars movie going back to Empire and onward shook the box and rattled fans, and got them angry, and got them fighting, and got them talking about it. And then for a lot of them, got them loving it and coming around on it eventually.”
On Metacritic, ‘Last Jedi’ remains the most acclaimed film of the series outside the original 1977 film, and Johnson revealed last month he’s moved onto other projects and so likely won’t be coming back to the “Star Wars” franchise.
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