Rian Johnson Discusses 'Last Jedi' Ending And Snoke Details (Or Lack Thereof)

When not dealing with angry people on Twitter, Rian Johnson takes some time out of his busy schedule to talk about Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The filmmaker behind the great new Star Wars sequel recently revealed some details about The Last Jedi ending, and also divulged the reasoning behind how he handled Snoke in the movie. Watch out for spoilers.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is now playing everywhere, making lots of money and receiving a mixture of high praise and angry scorn. One thing is clear: Rian Johnson's film has people talking. It may not be what every Star Wars fan expected, but The Last Jedi is one of the best and most interesting films in the franchise, and people just can't stop chatting about it. In two recent interviews, director Rian Johnson discussed some details about the film, specifically the ending, and also how the movie dealt with Snoke. Turn back now if you somehow haven't seen the film yet and are wary of spoilers!

At the end of The Last Jedi, Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker, having bought the rebels time to escape and one-upped his former student Kylo Ren, peacefully dies the way all Jedi do: by vanishing into thin air and leaving his robe behind. Speaking with The Huffington Post, Johnson said the prospect of killing off Luke Skywalker didn't make him feel particularly warm and fuzzy. "I wasn't looking forward to it," the filmmaker says. "I was kind of dreading it, but at the same time it felt like the right moment. It felt like the right time in this trilogy."

Johnson goes on to elaborate on why he thought the death of Luke came at the right time:

"It does go back a little bit to what he said at the beginning [of 'The Last Jedi']. 'What do you think one guy walking out there with a lightsaber [can do]?' ... The answer is: Create a legend that will spread hope. And once he's done that, combined with the physical toll it's taken on him, you can make the case that then there's nothing more powerful that he could accomplish."

Personally, I have no problem with how Johnson handled Luke's arc in The Last Jedi. It was both epic and touching, and let the character go out on a high note. Plus, do you really think we've seen the last of Mark Hamill in this series? I'm all but positive he'll pop up in Star Wars: Episode IX as a Force ghost, because why wouldn't he?

One character who probably won't be coming back as a Force ghost, however, is Supreme Leader Snoke, who got a half-off discount in the film. Snoke's sudden departure surprised many, especially since we didn't learn a whole lot about him. I'm fine with this! I don't care that much about Snoke! But some people do, and they want answers, gosh darn it. During a Q&A session for BAFTA (via Heroic Hollywood), Johnson offered a very good explanation for why he didn't go into Snoke's backstory much: it would've taken too much time and it would feel out of place:

"In this particular story, it's much more like the original trilogy, where with Snoke if you think about the actual scenes, if suddenly I had paused one of the scenes to give a 30 second monologue about who he was, it would have kind of stopped the scene in its tracks, I realized. Even though it could have been interesting, something that fans were interested in, as storytellers, we have to kind of serve what the scenes need to be. It was a tough thing, even though I knew some fans were interested in it I also knew it wasn't something that dramatically had a place in this movie. Hopefully it can be addressed elsewhere or even J.J. may address it in the next movie. But it's not something that's particularly interesting to Rey, so we kind of had to follow through."

Johnson's correct: adding some Snoke backstory stuff would definitely feel completely out of place in The Last Jedi's narrative, and it made sense to ignore it. The director does say there that if J.J. Abrams wants to, he can certainly add some of that sweet Snoke backstory to the next film, but I wouldn't be too surprised if that doesn't happen.