Will Rian Johnson's Career Ever Recover?

It's a waste of a hater's energy investing in the hope Rian Johnson fails in his career, because even if he did never get to work again, it's not really a "win" as The Last Jedi will still be the eighth installment in the Star Wars saga.

 

I know this was pre knives out but even then this was still a really weird question. One “bad” (it wasn’t bad it was great) movie isn’t going to sink someone as big as RJ. Plus it’s not like the movie bombed. Now post Knives out I think this thread should be locked. There is no discussion to be had. Yes RJ career will be fine.

 

Yes I agree, although I have problems with the film I enjoyed it; nonetheless, it made over a billion dollars at the box office and that's all Hollywood studios care about. Knives Out reestablished RJ as a great writer and director.

GL asked Mark Hamill back in the 70's if he would be willing to return to Star Wars 30 years later as an OB1 type of character, (paraphrasing) yeah if I'm not too busy... hehe.

I think Hamill understood the character of Luke Skywalker, and understood what GL wanted for an older version of Luke, so I agree with Hamill that RJ's take was a mistake, but I also understand that RJ is a very creative person and didn't want to go the safe route.

He wanted to subvert expectations which is good for some films, but for Star Wars' OT characters, the fans know them and love them, so in this case subverting expectation was a bit misguided on RJ's part; Nevertheless, I enjoyed TLJ there are good and bad parts similar to the prequel trilogy.

In TLJ when Rey asked Luke for help, he should have responded as OB1 did in ANH, when Leia asked him for help, that was the Luke everyone expected. Subverting expectations was the wrong take in my humble opinion. In the end, Luke did help the Resistance, so it wasn't a total loss.



RJ's career will be fine...

 

Mark Hamill has disagreed with Lucas and the way Luke has been developed for over 40 years.

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What he actually said is that he had to deal with the situation described in TFA where we were already told Luke walked away from it all following the failure of his academy, blames himself for Han & Leia's son turning to the dark side and now everyone is desperate to find him. That meant that he had to justify his absence in a way that might subvert some fans' expectations for a triumphant return of a character like Luke. But he couldn't just have Luke instantly acquiesce to Rey's arrival or treat his absence for the past few years as a frivolous matter

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 25, 2021 ---

Obi Wan was supposedly waiting twenty years until the "time is right", by which time he complained that he was too old. He hadn't "walked away" like TFA told us about Luke. (Although he did seem to have been enjoying blissed out retirement while the empire was in power for a whole generation)

 

Both Yoda and Obi Wan sucked and let billions of innocents die

 

I won’t continue it but I ain’t taking this to that thread either. I was responded to the post above by saying they both sucked. I’ll drop it.

 

Important to remember that in The Force Awakens Luke walks away from everything, abandons his friends, and doesn't come to their rescue. If Luke immediately says yes when Rey arrives that would have been completely out of step with last film. The choices made by Luke off screen in TFA had to be explained in TLJ.

Agree. More than fine it appears that Rian Johnson is headed towards the same model that JJ used with bad robot. Johnson's T-Street company has their hands on a lot of projects at the moment.

 

Same as he ever was. +1

Also, the Jake Skywalker comment about (the changes to) Luke's power(s) from TFA to TLJ is my favorite Mark Hamill quote of all time.

"The thought of losing locking this thread, is unbearable....."
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I want to tempt you. Like seriously if anyone thinks after Knives out that his career is ruined. I want what your having.

 

Rian Johnson's career was never in danger.

He has made interesting, powerful, and worthwile films since he started making them, and he'll get studied and talked about long after he stops making them.

The Ruin Johson narrative has always, ALWAYS been incredibly stupid and lame... and at best, at BEST been an attempt to demonstrate how a fan's subjective displeasure with a facet of a movie must be proof of the entire work's objective falacy. From there, the hunt for any scrap of imagined evidence that one could possibly construe to support one's socio-political agenda continues -- if only through some exceedingly creative interpretation of said "evidence" -- down into the very punctuation of the report of a 3rd hand heresay sentence, grasping for any, for ANY sliver of confirmation that INDEED a wildly successful film was actually universally hated by everyone in the world, and anyone associated with the production should be fired.

It is all so very, VERY stupid and I wish we could all just find something else to debate over soon.

 

I will go on record as saying it's the Citizen Kane of daft questions. Or it's the Snyder's Justice League of half baked suggestions.

And if that doesn't get this thread closed I'd hate to see what will.

 

I didn't see anyone mention this, but Rian Johnson also made the film Knives Out (2019) which made $311.4 million on a $40 million budget. The film was very well-received and earned quite a few nominations. Lionsgate has also announced a sequel.

 

RIP Rian Johnson's career.

 

Dead career, no recovery, everyone hates his movies, he's done...

 

RIP Rian Johnson’s career 2005-2021

 

I wouldn’t say his career is over because, as Rusty Cheeseknife said, he made “Knives Out” which did rather well in the film industry. He could still produce and direct amazing movies later on, but yeah, i didn’t necessarily like os contribution to Star Wars. I think he did contribute to the production of Solo and Rouge One, which I thought were good.

 

Different people have different tastes. But so long as we all know his career is not over I think we are all on the same page

 

Agreed.