SomeStar Warsfans who aren’t happy with the direction that Disney and Lucasfilm have taken the franchise in are offering to fund a remake ofThe Last Jedi. It’s no secret at this point that director Rian Johnson’s contribution to a galaxy far, far away has been easily the most divisive movie in the history of the franchise and has done a lot of harm to the fanbase. As a result, a group of fans-turned-producers are offering to remake the movie to saveStar Wars. The group has launched a website and social handles under the name “Remake The Last Jedi” and the project has garnered a lot of attention. Here’s what the group had to say in a tweet.
It’s unclear at the present time who exactly these producers are and how they’re going to come up with the financing, but there are a lot of people in support of the idea. The website says the producers have “pledged to cover the budget.” For some perspective,The Last Jediis said to have cost around $200 million to produce. It’s very unclear where those funds would come from, but the site offers fans the chance to pledge money toward the remake so that they can have their “voice heard.” As of this writing, the site claims those pledges have raised a staggering $14.8 million. The site provides some further information on the goals of this campaign.
“This is a campaign to provide Disney an opportunity to course correct with the Star Wars franchise. The fans are completely divided and the core goal of Star Wars has been abandoned. The goal is to not make one half of the fandom happy over the other, it is to make a film that the fandom in general as a whole enjoys. The hero archetype’s of the original films is what made these so great, it made characters that everyone could relate to regardless of their background and beliefs. No longer having this core element along with poor storytelling, has made the franchise divisive and in disarray.”
The site also has a video that details their plans. It comes with a legal disclaimer that states, “This is not an attempt to infringe on any copyrights and trademarks of Disney and Lucasfilm. This video is a parody that is aimed to raise awareness for the campaign and offer the money to Disney and Lucasfilm for the sole purpose of remaking The Last Jedi.” They have also addressed Carrie Fisher, who tragically passed before the movie was released saying, “Carrie can be kept in with her existing work.”
While a full remake of a $200 million blockbuster seems ridiculous for many reasons and it’s unlikely this remake will ever happen as Disney’s legal team will almost certainly shut it down, this does illustrate just how bad the current situation withStar Warshas become. That’s why we’re hearing reports that Lucasfilm is putting future spin-offs, such as the Obi-Wan and Boba Fett movies, on hold and why they’re probably not going to be dealing with inexperienced directors anymore.
This campaign has been making the rounds on Twitter and even got the attention ofRian Johnson. The director responded by saying, “please please please please pleeeeeeeaaaase please actually happen please please please please please.“Guardians of the Galaxydirector James Gunn also chimed in saying, “I will gladly spend that 300 million on a movie that’s not remaking a movie from a year ago. Call me!” Absurd as this may be, it demonstrates plainly thatStar Warsisn’t in a good place right now. If you want to see what’s going on with this proposed remake for yourself, you can head on over toRemakeTheLastJedi.com.
