Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Writer and director Rian Johnson

In October 2012, Star Wars creator George Lucas sold his production company Lucasfilm to The Walt Disney Company.[24] Disney announced a new trilogy of Star Wars films.[24] J. J. Abrams was named director of the first episode in the trilogy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, in January 2013.[25] In June 2014, director Rian Johnson was reported to be in talks to write and direct its sequel, Episode VIII, and to write a treatment for the third film, Episode IX, with Ram Bergman producing both films.[26][27] Johnson confirmed in August that he would direct Episode VIII.[28]

In January 2015, Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that Episode VIII would be released in 2017.[29] In December, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said that the film had not been mapped out and that Abrams was collaborating with Johnson, who would in turn work with (then) Episode IX director Colin Trevorrow to ensure a smooth transition.[30] Additionally, Abrams served as an executive producer along with Tom Karnowski and Jason McGatlin.[16] In January 2017, Lucasfilm announced the title for Episode VIII as Star Wars: The Last Jedi.[31]

The Last Jedi story begins immediately after The Force Awakens.[32] Johnson had his story group watch films such as Twelve O'Clock High (1949), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Gunga Din (1939), Three Outlaw Samurai (1964), Sahara (1943), and Letter Never Sent (1960) for inspiration while developing ideas.[32][33] He felt it was difficult to work on the film while The Force Awakens was being finished.[32]

Johnson wrote the scene with the mirrored versions of Rey to symbolise her search for identity; when she asks for a vision of her parents, she sees only herself.[34] Rey learns that her parents were "nobodies" because it would be "the hardest thing" she and the audience could hear; Johnson likened the scene to Luke Skywalker learning that Darth Vader is his father in The Empire Strikes Back (1980).[34] During production, Hamill expressed disagreement with the direction of his character, Luke, feeling his disillusioned state was at odds with the character.[35] Hamill later said he regretted making his initial misgivings public and compared his disagreements to his clashes with George Lucas during the filming of Return of the Jedi (1983).[35]

In September 2015, Disney shortlisted the female cast members to Gina Rodriguez, Tatiana Maslany, and Olivia Cooke.[36] That same month, Benicio del Toro confirmed his involvement in the film, but denied that he was playing a villain,[37][38] and Mark Hamill was also confirmed.[5] Joaquin Phoenix was also courted to portray the role of DJ, but would end up passing on the offer.[39] In October 2015, Gugu Mbatha-Raw was rumored to have been cast in the film.[40] In November, Kennedy announced at the London premiere of The Force Awakens that the entire cast would return for Episode VIII, along with "a handful" of new cast members.[6] In February 2016, at the start of filming, it was confirmed that Laura Dern and Kelly Marie Tran had been cast in undisclosed roles.[14] In April 2017, at the Star Wars Celebration Orlando, Lucasfilm announced that Tran would play Resistance maintenance worker Rose Tico, which Johnson described as the film's largest new role.[11][12] To keep Frank Oz's return as Yoda a secret, producers excluded Oz's name in the billing for the film's pre-release marketing and ensured that Oz stayed on set during filming.[15]

Some filming locations: The island of Skellig Michael in Ireland (top), Salar de Uyuni, a salt flat in Bolivia (middle), and the city of Dubrovnik, in Croatia (bottom)

Second unit photography began during pre-production at Skellig Michael in Ireland on September 14, 2015, due to the difficulties of filming at that location during other seasons.[41] It would have lasted five days, but filming was canceled for the first day due to poor weather and rough conditions.[41][42] In September 2015, del Toro revealed that principal photography would begin in March 2016.[37] The production began work on the 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios on November 15, 2015.[43] Rick Heinrichs served as production designer.[44]

In January 2016, production of Episode VIII was delayed until February due to script rewrites.[45] Filming was in danger of being delayed further due to an upcoming strike between the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television and the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union.[46] On February 10, 2016, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed that principal photography had begun[47] under the working title Space Bear.[32] Additional filming took place in Dubrovnik, Croatia from March 9 to 16,[48][49] as well as in Ireland in May.[50] Malin Head in County Donegal and a mountain headland, Ceann Sibeal in County Kerry, served as additional filming locations.[51] To increase the scenes' intimacy Driver and Ridley were both present when filming Kylo and Rey's Force visions.[52] Location filming for the battle scenes on the planet Crait took place at the Salar de Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia.[53] Additional filming took place in Mexico.[54]

Principal photography wrapped on July 22, 2016,[55] though as of early September, Nyong'o had not filmed her scenes.[56] In February 2017, it was announced that sequences from the film were shot in IMAX.[57] Production designer Rick Heinrichs said the original script called for 160 sets, double what might be expected, but that Johnson did some "trimming and cutting". Ultimately, 125 sets were created on 14 sound stages at Pinewood Studios.[58]

According to creature designer Neal Scanlan, The Last Jedi has more practical effects than any Star Wars film, with 180 to 200 creatures created with practical effects, some cut from the final edit.[59] For Yoda's appearance in the film as a Force ghost, the character was created using puppetry, as was done in the original Star Wars trilogy (as opposed to computer-generated imagery, which was used to create Yoda in most of the prequel trilogy).[60] Rian Johnson explained the decision was because he felt a digital Yoda would not have been true to how Luke knew him in The Empire Strikes Back.[61]

In July 2013, Kennedy confirmed at the Star Wars Celebration Europe that John Williams would return to score the Star Wars sequel trilogy.[62][63] Williams confirmed his assignment for The Last Jedi at a Tanglewood concert in August 2016,[64] stating he would begin recording the score "off and on" in December 2016 until March or April 2017.[65] On February 21, 2017, it was confirmed that recording was underway, with both Williams and William Ross conducting the sessions.[66][16] In lieu of a traditional spotting session with Johnson, Williams was provided a temp track of music from his previous film scores as a reference for scoring The Last Jedi.[67] The official soundtrack album was released by Walt Disney Records on December 15, 2017.[68]

The film had its world premiere at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on December 9, 2017,[74] and was released in the United States on December 15,[75] in IMAX and 3D.[76][77] The film was originally scheduled to be released in the United States on May 26;[78] however, it was pushed back to December to avoid competition with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017).[75]

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Star Wars: The Last Jedi digitally in HD and 4K via digital download and Movies Anywhere on March 13, 2018, with an Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD physical release on March 27.[79] On March 31, 2020, a 27-disc Skywalker Saga box set was released, containing all nine films in the series, with each film receiving three discs, a Blu-ray version, a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, and special features found on the 2011 release for the first six episodic films.[80]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi grossed $620.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $712.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.333 billion.[3] It was the highest-grossing film of 2017 and the ninth-highest-grossing film of all time.[81][82] The film had a worldwide opening of $450.8 million, the eighth-biggest of all time, including $40.6 million that was attributed to IMAX screenings, the second biggest for IMAX.[83][84] It was estimated that the film would need to gross $800 million worldwide to break even;[85] On December 31, 2017, the film crossed the $1 billion mark,[86] making it the third Star Wars film to do so. Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's net profit as $417.5 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs; box office grosses and home media revenues placed it first on their list of 2017's "Most Valuable Blockbusters".[87]

Pre-sale tickets went on sale in the United States on October 9, 2017, and as with The Force Awakens and Rogue One, ticket service sites such as Fandango had their servers crash due to heavy traffic and demand.[88] In the United States and Canada, industry tracking had The Last Jedi grossing around $200 million from 4,232 theaters in its opening weekend.[89][90] The film made $45 million from Thursday night previews, the second-highest amount ever (behind The Force Awakens' $57 million).[91] It went on to make $104.8 million on its first day (including previews), and $220 million over the weekend, both the second-highest amounts of all time.[89] The opening weekend figure included an IMAX opening-weekend of $25 million, the biggest IMAX opening of the year, and the second biggest ever behind The Force Awakens.[92]

After dropping by 76% on its second Friday, the worst Friday-to-Friday drop in the series, the film fell by a total of 67% in its second weekend, grossing $71.7 million. It was the largest second-weekend drop of the series, although it remained atop the box office.[93] It made $52.4 million in its third weekend, again topping the box office. It also brought its domestic total to $517.1 million, overtaking the Disney film Beauty and the Beast (2017) as the highest of 2017.[94] It grossed $23.6 million and was surpassed the following weekend by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) (which was in its third week) and Insidious: The Last Key (2018).[95]

In its first two days of release the film made $60.8 million from 48 markets. The top countries were the United Kingdom ($10.2 million), Germany ($6.1 million), France ($6 million), Australia ($5.6 million), and Brazil ($2.5 million).[96] By the end of the weekend, the film made $230 million outside the United States and Canada. All-time opening weekend records were set in various countries, including France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, and Finland.[97] On its second weekend, it grossed $76.1 million outside the United States and Canada and became the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year in Europe.[98] As of January 21, the largest markets outside of the United States and Canada are the United Kingdom ($109.3 million), Germany ($79.8 million), France ($63.5 million), Japan ($60.8 million), and Australia ($43.5 million).[99]

The film had a $28.7 million opening weekend in China.[100] A week after its debut, China's movie exhibitors dropped the film's showtimes by 90%.[101] The film grossed $910,000 in its third weekend, dropping to ninth place at the Chinese box office, overshadowed by new releases including Bollywood film Secret Superstar (2017), Hollywood films Ferdinand (2017) and Wonder (2017), and Chinese film A Better Tomorrow 2018.[102] The Last Jedi grossed $42.5 million in China.[3]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 487 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Star Wars: The Last Jedi honors the saga's rich legacy while adding some surprising twists—and delivering all the emotion-rich action fans could hope for."[103] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 84 out of 100, based on 56 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[104] Metacritic analysis found the film was the 25th-most mentioned film on "best of the year" film rankings[105] and the 22nd-most mentioned on "best of the decade" film rankings.[106]

Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film four stars out of four, praising the surprises and risks that it took, writing that "The movie works equally well as an earnest adventure full of passionate heroes and villains and a meditation on sequels and franchise properties", in which the film "includes multiple debates over whether one should replicate or reject the stories and symbols of the past."[107] Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, praising Johnson's direction and the cast performances, particularly Hamill's, and concluding that the film "ranks with the very best Star Wars epics (even the pinnacle that is The Empire Strikes Back)".[108] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, praising the action sequences and humor, and said that the film "doesn't pack quite the same emotional punch [as The Force Awakens] and it lags a bit in the second half, [but] this is still a worthy chapter in the Star Wars franchise", containing a few callbacks of "previous characters and iconic moments".[109]

Will Gompertz, arts editor of BBC News, gave the film four stars out of five, writing "Rian Johnson [...] has not ruined your Christmas with a turkey. His gift to you is a cracker, a blockbuster movie packed with invention, wit, and action galore."[110] The unpredictability of the plot was appreciated by reviewers such as Alex Leadbeater of Screen Rant, who commented specifically that the death of Snoke was "the best movie twist in years".[111] Creator of the franchise George Lucas, who was not involved with the film's production, described The Last Jedi as "beautifully made" shortly after its release.[112][113] His reaction to Star Wars: The Force Awakens was generally more negative.[114][115]

Conversely, Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote that the film "comes off as a work that's ironed out, flattened down, appallingly purified".[116] Kate Taylor of The Globe and Mail gave the film two stars out of four, saying it suffered from too many new additions and adding, "as it seeks to uphold a giant cultural legacy, this unfolding trilogy struggles to maintain a balance that often seems just out of reach."[117] Owen Gleiberman of Variety criticized the film for being too derivative of the past films, noting "it's now repeating things that have already been repeated", becoming "an official monument to nostalgia".[118]

Audience reception measured by scientific polling methods was highly positive.[119] Audiences polled by CinemaScore during the opening weekend gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, and those at PostTrak gave the film an 89% overall positive score, a 79% "definite recommend", and a rare five-star rating.[89] SurveyMonkey determined that 89% of its polled audience graded the film positively.[120]

User-generated scores at Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic received considerable coverage for being more negative. Audience scores on such sites require only registration and do not ensure that contributing voters have seen the film.[121] Several reviewers speculated that coordinated vote brigading from internet groups and bots contributed to the low scores,[122][123] including analysis provided by Quartz and Bleeding Cool.[124][125] After initially rejecting tampering claims,[126] Rotten Tomatoes later said in 2019 that The Last Jedi had been "seriously targeted" by a review-bombing campaign.[127] Scott Mendelson of Forbes labeled the negative reaction "alleged", saying it was based on "easily trolled online user polls", and he criticized Disney for placating the "vocal minority" in its approach to the sequel, The Rise of Skywalker.[128]

The Last Jedi was also characterized by reviewers as divisive among audiences.[129] Emily VanDerWerff of Vox found that dissatisfied fans saw the film as too progressive, disliked its humor, plot, or character arcs, or felt betrayed that it ignored fan theories.[122] Other reviewers made similar observations.[130] Particularly divisive was the reveal that Rey's parents are insignificant;[131] many fans had expected her to be Luke's daughter or to share a lineage with another character from the original trilogy.[132] There was also sentiment that Snoke's character was underdeveloped and that Luke's actions contradicted his previous heroic portrayal.[133] Reviewers claimed that fan theories were held so strongly among some viewers that it was difficult for them to accept different stories,[134] but they noted that other viewers appreciated the film's action, tone, and deviation from Star Wars tradition.[135][136]

The casting of Asian-American actress Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico spurred both a racial and misogynistic backlash against the film, including sexist and racist commentary about both Tran and her character.[137] Tran was accused of representing "forced diversity" imposed by "social justice warriors" because of her race.[138] After facing extensive harassment over her ethnicity and appearance, Tran quit social media.[138][139] The incident highlighted the challenges faced by people of color who are in Star Wars.[140] Tran was the first woman of color to have a lead role in a Star Wars film, and similarly John Boyega faced the same type of abuse when he was cast in The Force Awakens.[140][141] After leaving social media, director Rian Johnson and co-stars Mark Hamill and John Boyega defended Tran against the harassment she received.[141]