Rian Johnson says that the infamous Snoke scene in The Last Jedi would have been held back by a pause and exposition in who the Supreme Leader was.
If you have not seen The Last Jedi just yet, then honestly, it’s kind of on you at this point if someone spoils the climactic reveals and big moments the movie contains and you probably shouldn’t be reading this article. That being said, it is our duty to share that there are indeed spoilers here going forward.
The Last Jedi has been receiving heavy criticism from Star Wars fans based on director Rian Johnson’s focus on ignoring so many key plot points and character developments with origin stories and lineage of certain characters. All the while also including unnecessary characters and obtuse plot points that held back the progression of the film’s central plot. One such criticism, was the decision to kill of Snoke very abruptly with no explanation of who he is, how he came to be, what his true motives were, nor his passion and hate for Luke Skywalker. Johnson has acknowledged this criticism with a rather lackluster response.
“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.“
It makes sense to keep the flow and emotion of the scene in question, where Rey and Kylo stand before Snoke and exchange a few words before the most exciting and exhilarating fight sequence in the whole movie. An exposition here would have definitely held it back, but as Rian Johnson explains, his major focus is quality story telling. As to why he could not include Snoke’s backstory and history somewhere else in the film, say perhaps in place of anything to do with Rose and the casino scenes, is quite baffling, honestly.
But hey, at least you have this meme to look forward to for the next month or so.
I have my own feelings about The Last Jedi, and I can tell you that I am irritated with the majority of Rian’s choices, and his explanation for these decisions does not fully come justified, in my opinion at least. Perhaps J.J. Abrams will explore this in Episode IX, or perhaps not. But whether that is the case, I feel confident in saying that for being so focused on trying to tell a good story, Rian Johnson may need a little more work in that regard, and is likely not the best go-to for that experience.
