Warning: spoilers for The Last Jedi ahead.
Towards the end of Episode 8, Luke appeared on the planet of Crait – only for it to turn out that it was a Force Projection, and that he was actually still back on Ahch-To.
A journalist had said on Twitter: “Luke’s Force projection ability is foreshadowed by each of the Kylo/Rey scenes. Snoke (claimed) to have made that happen. Kylo even refers to the power it would take to do it.
“And like the transient dice, Kylo has moisture on his hand when it’s raining on Rey.”
After saying that writer was “reaching”, someone else replied: “In my mind, I don’t believe these scenes clearly setup up the concept of astral projection.
“It does set up the idea of that astral projection would result in death. I also don’t think at messaging a filmmaker into a conversation like this is cool.”
Sure enough, Johnson replied: “I should stay out of this but… were ANY aspects of force use in the OT (force grabbing objects, force ghosts, even the jedi mind trick) explicitly “set up” before they happened? I’ll take my answer off air.”
The doubter replied: “Rian, I love the film and not going to argue here but I do believe it’s different when something is introduced for the first time as part of the resolution of the climax of a movie.”
And Johnson ended the chat by saying: “I know & I don’t take offense at arguing about this stuff at all, to the contrary, I love it! But you’re right, probably not the right forum. (Still, I can’t resist…).”
The Last Jedi has attracted a huge amount of debate but remains a box office smash, generating well over $1 billion – despite troubles in China.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is out now.