Earlier this week, renowned voice actor, puppeteer and director Frank Oz spoke at SXSW, where he lamented the current state of The Muppets and decried Sesame Street as “a shadow of what it was.” But while there are quite a few people out there who’d say the same about the Star Wars franchise, it turns out this is one property that still has the Yoda actor’s support.
Oz reprised his role as the beloved Jedi Master for Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and though the 2017 film proved divisive for longtime fans of the franchise, the Little Shop of Horrors helmsman argues that the movie’s detractors were just looking to be pandered to.
“I love the movie,” Oz said. “All the people who don’t like this Jedi thing is just horse crap. It’s about expectations. The movie didn’t fill their expectations. But as filmmakers, we’re not here to fulfill people’s expectations.”
Even Mark Hamill has gone on record admitting that he had trouble accepting some of the choices made in The Last Jedi. In a press junket back in 2017, for instance, the actor went as far as to say that he “almost had to think of Luke as another character,” before adding, “He’s not my Luke Skywalker.”
Since then, however, Hamill has seemingly softened on the movie, and in an interview earlier this month with Den of Geek, the star lamented how his old quotes are still being used as evidence that he “hated” the film. Oscar Isaac, meanwhile, offered some thoughts of his own last October on the backlash received by Star Wars: The Last Jedi, arguing that while the Prequel Trilogy also had plenty of detractors, social media has now made the negative responses all the more visible.
Regardless, the series continues with the release of Star Wars: Episode IX on December 20th, 2019. In the meantime, you can catch Oz in Johnson’s next film, Knives Out, which will be hitting theaters on November 27th.