Breaking down the most controversial Star Wars movie of all time.
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00:00 Okay, so let's face facts here. There is, simply put, no more divisive Star Wars movie
00:05 than The Last Jedi, which, depending on who you ask, is either a masterpiece or a flaming
00:10 dumpster fire. This blockbuster took one look at the Force Awakens' safe, unambitious
00:15 franchise resurrection, and offered up a more daring, boundary-pushing sequel that carved
00:20 its own subversive path and split the fanbase right down the middle.
00:24 Yet, love it or hate it, the discourse surrounding The Last Jedi is so pervasively exhausting
00:28 that you couldn't really be blamed for dipping out and just not engaging with the movie one
00:33 way or another. And so, away from all of the toxicity, there's probably plenty that you
00:37 actually don't know about The Last Jedi, from fascinating aspects of its production
00:42 to sneaky easter eggs, cameos, and happy accidents that ultimately made the movie what it is.
00:47 So let's take a look at them today, as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and this is
00:51 20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Wars The Last Jedi.
00:55 20. Mark Hamill Hated Luke's Characterisation
00:59 Perhaps the single most divisive aspect of The Last Jedi was Luke Skywalker's characterisation,
01:04 reinventing him as a more world-weary, beaten-down, exiled Jedi, and one who even considered killing
01:10 Kylo Ren years prior. Fans weren't the only one upset by this, as even Mark Hamill himself
01:15 wasn't best pleased with how Luke was written. Enough so that he made it very clear to the
01:20 director, stating in an interview during the movie's press tour, that he said "I pretty
01:24 much fundamentally disagree with every choice you've made for this character. Now, having
01:28 said that, I've gotten it off my chest, and my job now is to take what you've created
01:33 and do my best to realise your vision." Hamill did, however, later apologise for "voicing
01:38 his doubts and insecurities in public" and added that despite his creative misgivings,
01:42 that Johnson made an "all-time great movie".
01:45 19. The Porgs Were Created For One Specific Reason
01:49 Another relatively polarising aspect of The Last Jedi was the introduction of the Porgs,
01:54 a species of bird native to the planet where Luke exiled himself. The creatures were compared
01:59 to Ewoks by some fans, who felt that they were blatant merch bait intended to appeal
02:04 to very young children. Yet in actual fact, the Porgs actually came about as a result
02:08 of practical problem-solving during shooting. While filming the scenes on the Irish island
02:13 Skellig Michael, the shoot was constantly interrupted by native puffins who would fly
02:17 into shot. And so because the puffins were a protected species and couldn't be touched,
02:22 the director simply decided to include the puffins in the film but alter their appearance
02:26 with CGI, because this was actually cheaper and easier than having them all painted out
02:31 digitally. And so, the Porgs were born.
02:34 18. Obi-Wan Was Almost In It
02:37 Rian Johnson admitted after the film's release that he did toy with the idea of having Obi-Wan
02:42 Kenobi appear as a Force ghost instead of Yoda, and yet rejected the idea for one major
02:47 reason, and that was the casting. Due to the original Obi-Wan actor Alec Guinness having
02:51 passed away many years ago, Johnson would have had to either use a CGI double or simply
02:56 bring Ewan McGregor into the fold, and while McGregor was eager to reprise the role, Johnson
03:01 wasn't quite as convinced. Ultimately, Johnson felt that having Mark Hamill interact with
03:05 the McGregor version of Obi-Wan, an iteration of the character he's never shared the screen
03:09 with before, wouldn't feel authentic. As fun as it would have been to see Obi-Wan in
03:13 the movie, Johnson was probably right here.
03:16 17. Carrie Fisher Helped Polish The Script
03:19 You may or may not know that the late, great Carrie Fisher spent many years in Hollywood
03:23 working a side gig as a script doctor, and in that job, she helped polish the scripts
03:28 for numerous huge movies such as 'Hook', 'Sister Act' and 'The Wedding Singer',
03:32 and even punched up the dialogue for the 'Star Wars' prequels. Though Fisher more or less
03:36 retired from script doctor work after the prequels came out, she did end up helping
03:40 Rian Johnson complete the script for 'The Last Jedi'. According to Johnson, he visited
03:45 Fisher's house and they went over the entire script in fine detail, with Fisher making
03:49 numerous suggestions, including rewriting much of Leia's own dialogue. Script doctors
03:53 typically go uncredited for their work and their contributions may only be revealed years
03:58 or even decades later, yet due to Fisher's untimely passing before 'The Last Jedi's'
04:02 release, it was fitting for Johnson to make that information public during the press tour.
04:07 16. Kylo Ren's Scar Was Actually Changed Between Movies
04:11 Near the end of 'The Force Awakens', Kylo Ren takes a shot to the face from Rey's
04:15 lightsaber, leaving him with a significant scar running from his hairline down to his
04:19 jaw. However, a few eagle-eyed fans noticed that Kylo's scar had subtly changed between
04:24 the movies, shifting from between his eyebrows to instead cutting through his right eyebrow
04:29 and going further down his right cheek. In a now deleted tweet, Johnson said that he
04:33 made the call himself, and it was purely for the sake of his own aesthetic preferences.
04:37 While it's unlikely that the fans would have been hugely bothered by the original scar
04:41 placement, this just goes to show the many hundreds of tiny creative decisions that go
04:45 into even the most seemingly mundane parts of a massive blockbuster movie.
04:49 15. Tatiana Maslany, Gina Rodriguez, Olivia Cooke and others were considered for Rose
04:55 The role of Resistance member Rose Tico was heavily sought out in Hollywood, as of course
04:59 eventually went to the largely unknown Kelly Marie Tran. It's especially impressive on
05:04 Tran's part, considering that she had to fend off competition from a bevy of considerably
05:08 more established and well-known actresses. This included the likes of Tatiana Maslany,
05:12 Gina Rodriguez and Olivia Cooke, all of whom made the shortlist and may have even been
05:17 screen-tested for the part. Ultimately, hiring an 'unknown' actor to play Rose may have
05:21 been for the best, though, allowing her to function as an easy audience surrogate without
05:25 the distracting potential a more high-profile performer might have brought to the role.
05:29 14. Mark Hamill also plays a secret second role
05:33 In addition to finally giving Luke Skywalker a full reprise in The Last Jedi, Mark Hamill
05:37 also plays a secret second character in the film who appears in the movie's divisive
05:42 Kanto bite sequence. Hamill asked Rian Johnson if he could play a CGI creation in the film
05:47 in addition to his upfront duties, and ended up being cast as Dobu Ske, the mischievous
05:52 drunk amphibian gambler who hilariously mistakes BB-8 for a slot machine and inserts a coin
05:58 in him. Hamill not only provided the small voice role for the character, but according
06:01 to Hamill himself, also wore a motion capture suit on set to act out his movements.
06:06 13. It was the first Star Wars film to show books and paper
06:10 You probably remember that Luke Skywalker had custody of a collection of sacred Jedi
06:15 text on his exiled planet, but you may not have put two and two together and appreciated
06:19 that this is actually the first time that we've ever seen books and paper in the canonical
06:24 cinematic universe. The presence of the Jedi text confirms once and for all, after so many
06:29 decades, that paper does indeed exist as we know it in the world of Star Wars, despite
06:34 information typically being stored and presented digitally. It's a fascinating sliver of
06:38 low-key world-building that has evidently been taken for granted by most fans, confirming
06:42 just how damn ancient those Jedi texts truly are.
06:45 12. The DJ character was almost Lando Calrissian
06:49 Benicio Del Toro has a small but vital role in the film as DJ, an underworld codebreaker
06:54 who ends up double-crossing the Resistance to General Hux in order to win his own freedom.
06:59 In the early scripting stages, however, the role was actually written for Lando Calrissian,
07:03 but Rian Johnson ultimately decided to reinvent the part as an entirely new character because
07:07 he didn't want to have Lando categorically betray the heroes. Lando's certainly no
07:12 stranger to subterfuge or looking out for number one, but at least he usually does the
07:15 right thing in the end. DJ, on the other hand, never gets his redeeming moment and effectively
07:20 just disappears out of the story after turning on Finn and Rose. Lando, of course, finally
07:25 returns to the franchise in 'The Rise of Skywalker', albeit only in a piecemeal,
07:29 strictly fan-serving capacity.
07:31 11. BB-8 says "I've got a bad feeling about this"
07:35 It was initially reported that 'The Last Jedi' was the first film in the Skywalker
07:38 saga to omit a variation of the iconic phrase "I have a bad feeling about this", but
07:43 yet that's actually not the case. Instead, Rian Johnson decided to get a little cute
07:47 with this one and include the one-liner in a highly concealed form. Johnson confirmed
07:51 that BB-8 actually says the very same phrase to Poe Dameron in the movie's opening scene,
07:56 making a series of binary beeping noises as they take on the First Order. Upon hearing
08:01 and understanding BB-8's anxiety, Poe responds with "Happy beeps here, buddy, come on"
08:05 and Johnson said of the inclusion, "It seemed like a fun character to deliver that line.
08:09 I think originally I had Poe respond, 'Oh, I got a good feeling about it, keep your chin
08:13 up' and then I made it a little less explicit just to make it more fun."
08:17 10. George Lucas thought that it was much better than 'The Force Awakens'
08:21 Back in 2019, then-Disney CEO Bob Iger released his memoirs, which included the revelation
08:27 that George Lucas wasn't actually too keen on 'Star Wars The Force Awakens'. He said,
08:31 "He didn't hide his disappointment. There's nothing new," Lucas said. "In each of the
08:35 films in the original trilogy, it was important to him to present new worlds, new stories,
08:39 new characters and new technologies. In this one, he said, there weren't enough visual
08:43 or technical leaps forward."
08:44 It's perhaps fitting, then, that Lucas was reportedly far more impressed with the more
08:48 original boundary-pushing 'The Last Jedi'. After seeing the film, Lucas called it "beautifully
08:53 made" and spoke directly with Johnson to praise him further. To date, Lucas hasn't
08:57 offered up his opinion on 'The Rise of Skywalker', though the fact that he was absent from its
09:01 world premiere could definitely be telling.
09:03 9. Carrie Fisher's dog, Gary, has a cameo
09:06 If you know much about Carrie Fisher's personal life, you're very likely aware that she
09:10 adored her pet French bulldog, aptly named Gary Fisher. In addition to travelling with
09:15 Fisher everywhere she went, Gary actually ended up making a sneaky cameo appearance
09:19 in 'The Last Jedi', showing up as an alien pet by an unidentified creature in the Kanto
09:24 bite sequence. It's a fleeting appearance that's tricky to spot, but it was indeed
09:28 confirmed by Rian Johnson on the eve of the film's release, and better yet, apparently
09:32 Gary had quite the bull watching himself on the big screen at the movie's premiere.
09:36 8. Maz Kanata's role was cut down during rewrites
09:40 After Maz Kanata was given such a strong and memorable introduction in 'The Force Awakens',
09:44 fans understandably expected to see more of her in 'The Last Jedi'. But alas, Maz shows
09:49 up for just a minute-long cameo appearance in the film, and left fans both mystified
09:53 and disappointed.
09:54 However, Maz originally had a much larger role in the story, as she was initially supposed
09:58 to appear at the Resistance base on Crait, with the concept art from the book 'The
10:02 Thought of Star Wars The Last Jedi' confirming this. J.J. Abrams even shot a scene for 'The
10:07 Force Awakens' which showed Maz returning to the Resistance base, yet because there wasn't
10:11 anything for her to do but simply sit around, it was decided to remove it. And so, this
10:15 had a knock-on effect on 'The Last Jedi', resulting in Maz's role being reduced during
10:19 rewrites, and in the end, this is all we got.
10:21 7. Frank Oz helped direct and edit the Yoda scene
10:25 One of 'The Last Jedi's' biggest surprises was the unexpected appearance of Yoda, who
10:29 shows up in forced ghost form, not as a digital creation, but as a classic, practical puppet.
10:35 In addition to Frank Oz providing the voice for Yoda and operating the Yoda puppet, he
10:39 actually helped direct the scene on set, and then went into the editing room with Rian
10:42 Johnson to provide added assistance. Given Oz's decades of experience working with
10:47 puppets, Johnson invited him to help shape the Yoda scene in post-production. Oz primarily
10:52 aided Johnson in editing around the puppet to maximise its presence on screen and make
10:56 Yoda feel real to the audience, and you know what? This was definitely a success.
11:01 6. Anthony Daniels was disappointed by C-3PO's small role
11:05 Mark Hamill wasn't the only legacy actor a little miffed about his character's treatment
11:09 in the movie. Anthony Daniels was also unhappy with C-3PO's role in 'The Last Jedi'.
11:14 In Daniels' case, it was less about the creative particulars of 3PO's presence than
11:18 the sheer size of his role, with Daniels saying, "In The Last Jedi, I became a table decoration,
11:23 which I regretted because 3PO was worth more than that." Daniels isn't really wrong,
11:28 in that C-3PO spends most of the film aboard Vice Admiral Holdo's ship and doing little
11:33 of major consequence. Ironically, Daniels was decidedly far more enthusiastic about
11:37 his part in 'The Rise of Skywalker', with the film giving 3PO far more to do.
11:41 5. Rose's personality was changed during production
11:45 Curiously, the movie's most air-quotes 'controversial and divisive' character was one who underwent
11:50 a fair reworking during production. Though when we first meet Rose she's something of
11:54 a resistance fangirl and remains a pillar of chirpy optimism throughout, Rian Johnson
11:59 originally wrote her as a more dour and cynical character. Once he cast Kelly Marie Tran and
12:03 saw how she interacted with John Boyega, he tweaked Rose to be less surly and more hopeful.
12:08 He said, "The character was written as more of an Eeyore type initially in the script,
12:12 so she was a little more grumpy and didn't really trust Finn. The more I got to know
12:16 Kelly she just has this open, beautiful spirit and I thought you have to see that at the
12:20 beginning of this character. That's got to be what this character is about. It was
12:24 really because of Kelly that the whole dynamic of the character changed, thank God."
12:28 Would a less open-hearted take on the character have changed fan perception of Rose? Well,
12:33 considering the bigoted basis of many fans' issues with Rose, probably not, unfortunately.
12:37 4. Joseph Gordon-Levitt voiced the alien, 'Slow and Low'
12:41 Joseph Gordon-Levitt starred in Rian Johnson's stellar directorial debut 'Brick' and
12:45 later his 2012 sci-fi masterpiece 'Looper', and has made cameo appearances in all of Johnson's
12:50 other films since. Gordon-Levitt had a voice cameo in 'The Last Jedi', portraying the
12:54 alien creature known as 'Slow and Low' during the 'Canto Bight' sequence. The
12:58 character's peculiar moniker is a reference to the Beastie Boys' song 'Slow and Low',
13:03 what with executive producer J.J. Abrams being a huge fan of the rap group. With Gordon-Levitt
13:07 having appeared in every single Johnson movie in some capacity to date, we can expect to
13:11 either see or hear him in the 'Knives Out' sequel 'Glass Onion' due out later this
13:16 year.
13:17 3. It's the only main 'Star Wars' movie without a lightsaber duel
13:21 'The Last Jedi' is the first mainline film in the series without a lightsaber duel.
13:26 Though 'Rogue One' lacked a saber fight the year before 'The Last Jedi', this is
13:29 the first of the nine main Skywalker saga movies without one. For despite Kylo Ren and
13:34 Rey using their laser swords to dispose of Snoke and his Praetorian guards during the
13:38 iconic throne room scene, they're the only ones using lightsabers in this sequence, so
13:43 it's not actually a duel. And of course, just when it seems like we're going to get
13:46 an epic showdown between Kylo Ren and Luke at the film's end, we learn that Luke simply
13:50 forced projecting himself onto that location, preventing the possibility of a duel. It's
13:54 a totally on-brand move for a 'Star Wars' movie so concerned with upending audience
13:59 expectations, even if like some of the movie's other creative calls, it did leave some fans
14:03 firmly disappointed.
14:04 2. Tom Hardy's Cameo as a Stormtrooper was cut
14:09 Just about everybody wants to make a cameo appearance in 'Star Wars', and after Daniel
14:13 Craig made a brilliant appearance as a Stormtrooper in 'The Force Awakens', fans were eager
14:17 to see who would show up in 'The Last Jedi'. Yet despite persistent pre-release reports
14:21 that Tom Hardy will be playing a Stormtrooper, he was nowhere to be seen or heard, and Rian
14:25 Johnson later revealed that his role was actually cut. The deleted scene was eventually released,
14:30 showing Hardy playing a Southern-accented Stormtrooper who knows Finn, and seeing him
14:34 suited up in Captain's uniform for his mission sees him express surprise that he's climbed
14:39 the ranks, while seemingly oblivious to Finn's defection from the First Order. Johnson hasn't
14:43 ever confirmed why Hardy's role was cut, though it's safe to say that it was either
14:47 due to pacing - I mean, after all, the final cut was 152 minutes long - or because Hardy's
14:51 Southern caricature was perhaps a little bit too silly for its own good.
14:55 1. Actor Timothy D. Rose was left in tears over Admiral Ackbar's death
14:59 Many fans were left disappointed by the death of Admiral Ackbar at the hands of Kylo Ren,
15:04 but nobody was more crestfallen than Timothy D. Rose, who played Ackbar in 1983's 'Return
15:09 of the Jedi' and returned to portray him in both 'The Force Awakens' and 'The
15:13 Last Jedi'. In addition to expressing frustration with the secrecy on set while shooting both
15:17 'The Force Awakens' and 'The Last Jedi', Rose felt that Ackbar's death was treated
15:21 as a joke on set. He said,
15:23 "We finished all of our bits and they asked me to come down to camera and I thought, 'Oh
15:27 well, maybe they're going to say thank you for being one of the heritage characters and
15:30 giving 30 years and all that.' But what they did was ask me to look at the camera and say,
15:34 'It's a wrap.' I was actually in tears in the suit because I thought, after everything,
15:38 after hoping there'd be something, after knowing that there wasn't going to be anything
15:41 else, Ackbar's final moment before he went into the box was a big joke about 'It's
15:46 a wrap.'"
15:47 Rose's comments have earned him a lot of sympathy from fans, who also felt that Ackbar
15:50 should have received a more ceremonious and meaningful demise, rather than being disposed
15:54 of so flippantly.
15:56 To compensate for this, though, General Ackbar's son was introduced as a minor character in
16:00 'The Rise of Skywalker'.
16:01 And there we go, my friends. Those were 20 things you didn't know about 'Star Wars
16:05 The Last Jedi'. I hope that you enjoyed that and please let me know what you thought about
16:08 it down in the comments section below. As always, I've been Jules, you can go follow
16:12 me over on Twitter @RetroJay but the O is a zero, or you can swing by Instagram where
16:16 it's the same handle, @RetroJay but the O is a zero. As always, I've been Jules, you
16:21 have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.