Abrams believes some fans who bashed The Last Jedi are threatened by women

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

There are plenty of completely valid reasons to be critical of STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, and that's just fine, but it's hard to deny that some of the more toxic reaction towards the film came from individuals who were simply unhappy about the inclusion of female characters, giving little thought towards constructive criticism. While speaking with IndieWire, STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS director J.J. Abrams, who will be returning to helm STAR WARS: EPISODE IX, addressed the backlash towards THE LAST JEDI by certain groups of fans by saying that, "Their problem isn't 'Star Wars,' their problem is being threatened."

'Star Wars’ is a big galaxy, and you can sort of find almost anything you want to in ‘Star Wars.' If you are someone who feels threatened by women and needs to lash out against them, you can probably find an enemy in ‘Star Wars.’ You can probably look at the first movie that George [Lucas] did [‘Star Wars: A New Hope’] and say that Leia was too outspoken, or she was too tough. Anyone who wants to find a problem with anything can find the problem. The internet seems to be made for that.

As for whether this backlash will have any impact on the upcoming STAR WARS: EPISODE IX, J.J. Abrams said "Not in the least," adding that "There’s a lot that I would like to say about it, but I feel like it’s a little early to be having the ‘Episode IX’ conversation … I will say that the story of Rey and Poe and Finn and Kylo Ren — and if you look, there are three men and one woman, to those that are complaining that there are too many women in ‘Star Wars’ — their story continues in a way that I couldn’t be more excited about and cannot wait for people to see." Again, having issues with STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI is perfectly fine, no film should get a free pass, but I can't imagine that THE LAST JEDI backlash is entirely behind us. J.J. Abrams agrees that "everyone is going to have their point of view" and that something he discovered early on is "that you’re going to have an incredibly passionate and vocal fanbase, and they’re all going to have a lot of specific opinions."

STAR WARS: EPISODE IX is set for a December 20, 2019 release.