In a searing hot take from a galaxy far, far away, director J.J. Abrams has said that Star Wars fans who reacted strongly against The Last Jedi, the most recent film in the series, may well have just been “threatened” by the increased presence of women in the film.
While critics loved the Rian Johnson-directed The Last Jedi, a vocal contingent of fans did not, complaining about everything from plot holes to inconsistencies with the established universe to the fact that Klingons look weird as fuck now. (Wait, no, wrong backlash, sorry).
Then there were those who took it a step further, creating their own completely batshit fan edit of the film, which cut out any portion of the action that showed a female character exercising authority, and did away with Laura Dern‘s Holdo entirely.
These were probably the people that Abrams was referring to when he told Indie Wire:
“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 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.”
Abrams, who directed The Force Awakens, was asked if the fan backlash will be on his mind when he returns to direct the next instalment, and his answer was “not in the least.” He continued:
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.
