‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ The entitled ‘Star Wars’ fandom needs to stop
We talk a lot here at Film Daily about the positive power of fandoms and how groups of fans can legitimately affect change for their favorite shows and even save them from cancellation. The recent outrage from fans of shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, One Day at a Time, and Legion has helped to ensure each show will live to air another day.
This is the bright side of fandoms. It’s the side that bubbles with joy and passion and is possibly the purest manifestation of a fandom possible.
Then there’s the dark side, on which fans feel such a sense of deranged ownership over a story or extended universe that they become palpably – and often actively – outraged when a movie or TV show doesn’t deliver exactly what they want to see. Case in point is the dweeb squad currently looking to remake Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Twitter explosion
Last year, Twitter blew up over an account called “Remake The Last Jedi”. Their agenda is to make a version of the movie that isn’t (as they deem Rian Johnson’s film to be) “blasphemy”.
The Twitter page is quite rightfully the laughingstock of the internet right now. It showcases nerd culture at its most ludicrous and stereotypical – it’s easy to imagine Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Trio of Doom putting this sh!* together in their basement. It depicts a certain type of Star Wars fan: the kind that less obsessive fans of George Lucas’s iconic franchise are ashamed to call part of their community.
The “Remake The Last Jedi team” – although it could easily be just one dude raising hell from his childhood treehouse – apparently has “a team of producers . . . offering to provide the budget for a remake of The Last Jedi in order to save Star Wars.” Its members are angling for help “to get the legal rights” so they can bring this plan to fruition.
Fandom opinion
From the sounds of it, not a single professional writer or filmmaker will be involved in the production of this proposed new version of the movie – because what the hell do they know, right? Instead saything they “will be consulting with Star Wars fans directly throughout the writing of the remake of The Last Jedi as the plan is to make a version of TLJ that is as close to universally accepted as possible.”
We can’t even remember the last time a big-budget franchise movie was “universally accepted” in any form, but sure. You do you, nerds. They also shared their opinions that “the best writing comes from a group of people who have differing opinions but can constructively work together for the best story. Not just one writer sitting in a room thinking whatever pops into their head is the best idea ever.” Like, say, a Twitter campaign to remake a Disney movie?
It isn’t just the sheer ignorance exhibited by this Twitter feed that is so galling – particularly in assuming that the shortcomings of any movie can simply be ascribed to deliberately poor writing. It’s also the arrogance of these fans in thinking they can easily achieve better simply because they believe they know and love the Star Wars franchise better than anyone.
Remake campaign
Therefore, the canon is theirs, and they should always be calling the shots on whatever movies come of their beloved film series. They’re bungling supervillains in fan form, making bold statements and plans but lacking much of the tenacity, skill, and knowledge to put any of them into action.
Still, the “campaign” has apparently managed to raise over “$150MM” so far. We’re not entirely sure what form of currency “MM” stands for so can only assume they mean that their pledges have surpassed the $150 Monopoly Money mark.
Toxic behavior
“The people in power think the fans who disliked TLJ are an irrelevant minority of basement dwellers who are just keyboard cowboys that will never actually effect [sic] any real change,” another post reads, with a meek sneer of crazed power. Fans can affect change and by now most studios are becoming all too aware of that fact.
However, it’s one thing to rally behind a franchise that you love and another to treat it like a possession that only a sacred few can lend their vision to.
With Disney recently cancelling its slate of upcoming Star Wars spinoff movies – possibly due to the current sh!*fest surrounding the franchise – and toxic behavior forcing stars Kelly Marie Tran and Daisy Ridley off social media, the Star Wars fandom is officially broken. This latest Twitter campaign is affirmative proof.
