The Last Jedi: A fan-made remake in the works?

Star Wars: The Last Jedi has had a reputation of being the most divisive Star Wars film ever. Now, a group of Last Jedi critics are campaigning for a Last Jedi Remake, which is…actually getting some traction.

Six months after the release of the controversial Star Wars sequel, perspective hasn’t changed much when it comes to the film’s incredibly polarizing reaction. On one hand, we have devoted fans who claim Rian Johnson’s work to be some of the best in the entire Star Wars series. On the other hand, we have passionate (maybe overly so) fans that label The Last Jedi as the worst installment in the whole series and a complete disgrace. Whether you agree with any of the notions or not, it’s hard to deny the consistently charged reactions to The Last Jedi. But now, those reactions have been taken a step further.

A Twitter account by the name of Remake the Last Jedi (subtle, I know) has surfaced within these past couple of days. Their mission is simple: Raise enough money to cover the massive budget of The Last Jedi and remake the film in their own vision. All the while, a meeting with Disney to discuss this is supposedly within their goals as well, so as to not run into any legal trouble with the powerful company. Their goals are explicitly stated in the tweets down below:

Making waves

As I post about this, let me make it clear that this isn’t going to be the start of me covering low-budget remakes of bigger and more commercially known films. There are tons and tons of fan-made remakes out there, so there’s no point in covering every single one of them. That begs the question: why cover this potential remake then? If it’s a fan-made vision of an existing product, why should this get attention? In all honesty, I personally wouldn’t have been interested enough to cover this strange grass-roots campaign if it had gotten no attention, as is the case with fan-made remakes. But low and behold, the entertainment industry is beginning to take notice.

The movement has gathered the attention of various celebrities and film industry people, including none other than Seth Rogen. The famous actor has take notice of the movement and tweeted back at the account, questioning the logic of such a grand remake being made.

The attention of Seth Rogen is already a big endorsement of sorts to the strength of the movement (even if all Seth is doing is questioning how they could pull something of this magnitude off), but the attention didn’t stop there. The word has even gotten around to the director of The Last Jedi: Rian Johnson. Johnson has had a habit of being confrontational online towards some of the nastier critics of the film, as well as having a generally sarcastic attitude when it comes to those critics. But Johnson’s reaction is…quite interesting.

https://twitter.com/rianjohnson/status/1009848399858843649

Don’t get it too twisted. If we take into account Johnson’s online personality, it’s obvious that he is retweeting this in a sort of ironic fashion. He has made clear that he is proud of his work on The Last Jedi, so this retweet could more than likely just be a wink-wink gesture towards a team of people who had this big of an issue with the film. But whether you take these accounts all that seriously or not, it is doing nothing but boosting the profile of Remake the Last Jedi, which is growing at hundreds of followers per hour.

How much is too much?

If I were a betting man, I’d personally bet that this remake may not ever see the light of day. Not only is this a remake of a well-known film, but a Disney film. Disney, who have positioned themselves as one of the most powerful entities on the entire planet, may take issue with a movement that seems to be spreading like a wildfire. With Star Wars being a global property as is, it would be difficult to think of a scenario where the team could actually pull this off. The Avengers have better odds at defeating Thanos.

But this begs the question: is this truly necessary? Could something like this actually warrant some artistic merit? Yes, at the end of the day, it’s clear that the team is mostly composed of harsh critics of The Last Jedi, but there is also the chance that this ambitious remake could offer the Star Wars fandom a different perspective on the sequel. As someone who doesn’t mind the film on a personal level, it is intriguing to see a movement like this get so much traction online, despite many onlookers questioning exactly why this is happening.

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If this were to happen, it’ll be interesting to see how the changes made would benefit the story, if at all. Remaking The Last Jedi certainly takes guts, considering that the film would have to go up against Disney, but it remains to be seen whether this will come to fruition and whether the remake offers anything satisfying to the Star Wars universe.

What do you think? Should The Last Jedi be remade in this fashion or is it simply too much? Sound off in the comments below!