Even with The Mandalorian gaining rave reviews and the upcoming High Republic line of stories that look promising, Star Wars fans have been pretty salty in recent years. The Last Jedi is often seen as a movie that changed too much of the franchise mythos while last year's The Rise of Skywalker was accused of pandering to too many fans who were upset over its predecessor.
Considering how different the films are from each other, a lot of fans wondered if there was some friction between J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson. Many felt that Johnson was trying too hard to subvert our expectations after The Force Awakens set the stage for a classic-style Star Wars trilogy. Abrams then had to wrap up everything after Colin Trevorrow was kicked out of Episode IX.
Greg Grunberg, who appeared in all of the Star Wars sequel trilogy installments as resistance fighter Snap Wexley, told The Hollywood Reporter that Abrams never said anything bad about Johnson. Any of J.J. Abrams' fans know that Grunberg is pretty close with the director so his word is pretty solid if anything else.
"I never heard one disparaging thing from J.J. about Rian. It's one of those things where if you pay attention to the film and engage with it, all it does is keep that story going. I would absolutely tell you if there were moments here and there. And there weren't. There just absolutely weren't. If anybody was going to try and dig that out of J.J., it'd be me."
For those that don't believe Grunberg, it's also worth noting that Abrams has continuously mentioned how he didn't blame Johnson for the changes made. While we still think that The Rise of Skywalker was a case of course-correction, Abrams has always made his respect for Johnson clear when he could have easily gotten some cheap cheers from the annoying Star Wars fans.
Then again, both of their movies are Disney products. Maybe they're not allowed to say mean things about each other?
Both The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker are now available in digital media, with the former getting released early due to COVID-19.
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