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Tag: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

  • The ‘Star Wars’ Gag in ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ Is Pure Rian Johnson

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    If you’re looking for excellent 2025 releases to watch while you’re home for the holidays, look no further than Netflix. Warner Bros.’ (almost) new owner has several fantastic original films now streaming, from Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and the George Clooney-starring Jay Kelly to Jyn Erso and Owen Lars (Felicity Jones and Joel Edgerton) in Train Dreams, as well as KPop Demon Hunters and more.

    The best of the bunch, though, might be Rian Johnson’s third Knives Out movie, Wake Up Dead Man. Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) returns to solve another murder, with a star-studded cast and more twists and turns than ever. It’s our favorite of the bunch, and part of that is a perfect Star Wars joke that comes about halfway through the film.

    We won’t spoil how the film ends, but this does involve a mid-movie reveal.

    About halfway through the film, we learn that Cy (Daryl McCormack) is the son of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). In a flashback, we watch the social media-savvy Cy tell his father about how they can use social media to make him into a celebrity. Possibly even the president. “Together we can build a real empire, as father and son,” Cy tells Wicks. We then cut to the present, where Father Jud (Josh O’Connor) says what the audience is thinking. “Like in Star Wars?” Cy then replies, “Yeah, exactly, like the Rebels.” And Jud gives him that look of, “I think you mean Empire, but we’ll let it go.”

    In the context of the film, the joke works because it’s funny and tells us a bit about Cy, Wicks’ plan, and Jud’s understanding. But it also works on another level.

    Before the Knives Out films, writer-director Rian Johnson made a little film called Star Wars: The Last Jedi. That film was, in some circles, wildly misinterpreted. People were mad that Luke Skywalker sacrificed himself, when that was the most Jedi thing he could have done. People were mad about the long scene at Canto Bight, when it was crucial to Finn’s journey. People were mad at Snoke being killed, when that was the exact type of bold storytelling that made The Empire Strikes Back everyone’s favorite Star Wars film. The list goes on and on.

    And so, Johnson putting in a joke about this man wildly misinterpreting Star Wars feels very pointed. Maybe even cathartic. Cy is an idiot, and, well, maybe Johnson feels similarly about other people, too. Or, maybe, Star Wars just works differently depending on who is watching it. Whatever the case, having such a quick aside become so layered is pure Rian Johnson.

    See that joke, and many others, in one of the best films of 2025, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, streaming on Netflix.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Germain Lussier

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  • Rian Johnson Loved All Your ‘Last Jedi’ Reactions, Actually

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    The news broke mere weeks before the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Lucasfilm and Disney had rehired writer-director Rian Johnson to make a new trilogy of Star Wars films, marking the ultimate vote of confidence in his upcoming eighth chapter in the saga. Excitement could not have been higher. And while, for some, the film’s bold, surprising take on Star Wars lived up to that, for others, it did not.

    The weeks, months, and now years since the release of The Last Jedi have seen Lucasfilm scrambling over where to go next in a galaxy far, far away. Johnson’s trilogy all but evaporated, and announcement after announcement of new movies suffered similar fates. Next year, the release of a movie version of a TV show that was still two years from existence at that time will mark the first Star Wars movie since the conclusion of the sequel trilogy. A trilogy whose final film was put into disarray by the polarizing reaction to Johnson’s work.

    But, for Johnson himself, he looks back on that time and everything that’s come since with positivity. Speaking at Newport Beach Film Festival this week, Johnson (who did go on to make a new trilogy, just of Knives Out films) was asked if the fan reaction to The Last Jedi was responsible for him not making new Star Wars films.

    “No, not at all,” he said. “In fact, it’s the reason that I wanted to. My overall experience with putting the movie out, and what you’re talking about with fan feedback… I mean, first of all, I’m a lifelong Star Wars fan. So I know the deal. I know that Star Wars fans are passionate about this stuff. We love the stuff we love, we hate the stuff we hate, and we fight about it. And that’s been happening since the original trilogy. I was in college when the prequels came out. Are you kidding me? The prequel wars? We had a few. I mean, everybody did. And so, the notion that Star Wars has been this kind of Shangri-La, united fandom, and that [nothing] could then split that apart [is false]. The reality is Star Wars has always been something that has meant different things to different people. And I think that’s part of the fun and the passion of it as fans, is arguing about it respectfully.”

    “I’ve talked to so many people over the years, since we made that movie, who have such deep connections to Star Wars and who have deep connections to that movie,” Johnson continued. “And so it’s been the most positive experience I’ve ever had with anything I’ve made, in terms of interacting with people who’ve seen it. I came out at the other end of it loving Star Wars fandom more than I did even going into it.”

    We may never know exactly what happened with Johnson’s Star Wars movies, and, in fact, he often says he’d love to make them one day. But that all this time later he can look back on the experience as a positive is a testament to why he would have been a great person to entrust those movies to.

    You can watch the full discussion, thanks to Star Wars Culture, at the link below. The above quote comes in the last two minutes.

     

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Germain Lussier

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  • Peek Inside the Sacred Jedi Texts From ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’

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    The Star Wars sequel trilogy remains a hot topic for Star Wars fans, young and old. No matter where you stand on the three films, though, one thing we can probably all agree on is the one prop from the series that we’d most like to hold in our hands and explore: the sacred Jedi texts.

    Revealed in Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, the Jedi texts are stored on Ahch-To and watched over by Luke Skywalker after he leaves the Jedi order and the Force behind him. They’re the last remnants of the teachings and history of the Jedi way, something that has long been discussed and battled over in the course of the series. Luke himself remains unclear about their teachings and, despite trying to destroy them, they end up in Rey’s possession by the end of the film. What’s next for those texts, we do not yet know but we now can finally get a good glimpse inside them.

    The official Star Wars website recently posted about the props that were created for the films. Forty different books were designed and conceived, from which director Rian Johnson selected 10 for the actual movie. Of those, only one gets shown off in the film, and that book itself took about two weeks to make. It not only includes the page we briefly see in the film but several others too. Pages that existed on set but were never seen. Until now.

    Here are a few images of the sacred Jedi texts and their interior pages from StarWars.com.

    An image of the Jedi text prop. – Lucasfilm
    Star Wars Jedi Texts 2
    Concept art of some of the interior pages. – Lucasfilm
    Star Wars Jedi Texts 3
    Jedi text concept art. – Lucasfilm
    Star Wars Jedi Texts 4
    The prop from the film. – Lucasfilm

    The prop clearly still exists, so the question then becomes, will we see it again? Will these texts, which we last saw in Rey’s possession, play a role in how she aims to start a New Jedi Order? Or will Rey’s New Jedi Order go against the teachings in these books? Those clearly didn’t work, as now, almost every Jedi is extinct.

    To read more and see more images, head over to StarWars.com. Daisy Ridley’s return to the Star Wars universe, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, is still without a release date.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Germain Lussier

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  • Daisy Ridley Recalls Director J.J. Abrams’ Advice After Star Wars Casting: “This Is a Religion for People”

    Daisy Ridley Recalls Director J.J. Abrams’ Advice After Star Wars Casting: “This Is a Religion for People”

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    Daisy Ridley recalled director J.J Abrams’ words of wisdom following her casting in 2015’s The Force Awakens, saying this week that he told her to “understand the scale” of the film franchise before accepting the lead role.

    Ridley played protagonist Rey in The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019), leading the Star Wars films through their first years following Disney’s acquisition of the George Lucas universe.

    “This not a role in a movie,” Ridley recalled Abrams telling her in a new interview with Inverse. “This is a religion for people. It changes things on a level that is inconceivable.”

    Abrams, Ridley says, was right: Star Wars changed her life, launching her status as a celebrity and pushing her to the forefront of an extremely passionate fan base.

    “For friends and family, or any people who see something in a slightly different way than you do, there’s this projection of you, and you in that world, and how it feels to do this and that,” she said. “And you’re like, ‘Well, actually, I’m just a human being, separate from that.’ It’s quite this wrestle of the reality and the fantasy that’s often projected onto you.”

    Ridley said the stress came at her quickly. “When all the craziness was going on, I was like, ‘I’m good. I’m good. I’m coping fine. Everything’s fine.’ And I was fine, for the most part. But I think what I was really grappling with was that it was my normal, but it was not normal to other people.”

    Her stress soon manifested physically, and by the time The Last Jedi reached theaters, Ridley had developed holes in her gut wall. “My body was just fucked up,” she told GQ in 2019. “I got tests done and it turned out my body was taking in no nutrients. I was just a little skeleton and I was just so tired. I was becoming a ghost.”

    Ridley took a six month break before beginning filming The Rise of Skywalker, which helped her recover. Then, the real end happened: “After the last Star Wars came out and everything was quiet, I was like, ‘What the fuck?’” Ridley said. “I was grieving.”

    The experience ultimately took years to process, and was aided by the pandemic that started two years after Skywalker. “Having to sit in lockdown was incredibly helpful, in a way I hadn’t anticipated,” Ridley said. “I realized there was a lot that I hadn’t processed properly.”

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    Zoe G Phillips

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