Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has opened up about some of the bad faith backlash against his film, while also praising the Star Wars fan community at large and encouraging debate among them.

　　Johnson's comments were made during WIRED live Q&A event to promote his upcoming movie, Knives Out. Parts of the Q&A were recorded by one fan and uploaded to Twitter, who caught an interesting moment during the event. One audience member asked Johnson about the negative reaction to The Last Jedi from certain viewers, and his thoughts on people who complain about the film's cast diversity. Johnson did not mince words in his reply, which was met with immediate applause: "if someone's responding to diversity negatively, f*** 'em."

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　　“if someone is responding to diversity negatively, fuck them” - @rianjohnson on tlj backlash pic.twitter.com/RB7cVpefYG

　　— Molly (@mpychu) November 10, 2019

　　As the applause died down, Johnson immediately clarified that not everyone who dislikes his film is a bigot: "if anyone didn't like the movie, I'm not saying that's why they didn't like it." Talking about the backlash, Johnson admits that he expected that the film would not appeal to everyone. "It wasn't surprising at all to me. I grew up as a Star Wars fan. I was in my 20s when the prequels came out. This whole idea that it's been sunshine and roses, and then everyone's yelling at each other, is baffling to me."

　　here is @rianjohnson’s full response. he is honestly so kind. we don’t deserve him!! pic.twitter.com/JPDPifVR8F

　　— Molly (@mpychu) November 10, 2019

　　Johnson believes that the passionate debates that fans have about Star Wars is all part of the series' appeal. "People care deeply about Star Wars, and every single person has a slightly different version of what they think Star Wars is. And so much of the fun of it is arguing about it." He believes that the negativity around the film has been covered extensively because it "is fun to write about, and it gets clicks," but he also says that the majority of folks who reach out to him about Star Wars are actually very pleasant.

　　"95% of my interactions on Twitter are absolutely lovely and constructive and wonderful with Star Wars fans," he says. "Star Wars fans are the best fans in the world, all of them." He also believes that the rest of the fandom needs to push back against the folks who are angry at the diversity of his film's cast. "I think the fandom has to take a stand against getting defined by a very small slice of it, that does not represent the lion's share."

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　　Johnson is set to direct his own original Star Wars trilogy in the future, although what it's going to be, exactly, is seemingly still being decided upon. The next film in the series, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, will wrap up the Skywalker saga. It's directed by J.J. Abrams, and will release on December 20--for an idea of what to expect, check out our Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker review. After that, the series is going on a hiatus, at least in cinemas, with Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss having recently stepped away from their own planned trilogy.