If you’re looking for an example of how fickle a fanbase can be, look no further than Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The second installment in the Sequel Trilogy hauled in $1.3 billion globally during a 126-day theatrical run – good enough for eleventh on the all-time worldwide gross chart – and earned an admirable 91% certified fresh rating on the Tomatometer.
Yet bafflingly, the Rian Johnson-directed space opera is also currently the holder of the lowest audience score for a Star Wars film on that very same site, and the director himself has even been subjected to constant and incessant criticism – bullying, really – on Twitter ever since the film was released.
Sadly, the unremitting vivisection may have finally pushed him to his breaking point. According to ScreenGeek (H/T John Talks Star Wars), Johnson – who was recently awarded his own trilogy in that galaxy far, far away – has deleted over 20,000 of his tweets, and 1,000-plus since the firing of fellow filmmaker, James Gunn, by Disney.
At the moment, the motive behind this mass deletion is unknown, but given that 1,038 tweets were removed over the weekend, it’s seemingly in response to Gunn’s termination, which has sparked an absolute storm online. In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Marvel director came under fire last week after old posts of his referencing pedophilia and molestation surfaced again. Ultimately, it grew to the point where it was problematic enough that Disney felt some action needed to be taken.
Johnson, on the other hand, isn’t one to shy away from a Twitter battle and even had help fighting his harshest critics when Mission: Impossible – Fallout director, Christopher McQuarrie, called out the aforementioned bigoted Last Jedi fans earlier this month. Again, we have no clue as to why he’s now chosen to delete most of his tweets, but as soon as we learn more, we’ll be sure to let you know.