Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has leapt to the defence of his polarising movie's "goofy" humour.
Currently promoting the whodunit sequel Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story, which reunites Johnson with Benoit Blanc himself Daniel Craig, he opened up to GQ about one of the major fan complaints his galaxy far, far away faced.
"For me, everything in the movie is Star Wars, and everything in the movie, I can trace back in a deep way to what Star Wars is for me," he began.
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"I know that everyone has a different take. I know there are Star Wars fans who somehow think that Star Wars was a serious thing, like the Batman movies or something."
Keen to destroy that illusion, Johnson pointed towards some of the creative choices originally made by Star Wars mastermind George Lucas in the first trilogy.
Referencing the 1983 instalment specifically, he shared: "Anyone who thinks that slightly goofy humour does not have a place in the Star Wars universe, I don't know if they've seen Return of the Jedi.
"There's literally a scene where Han Solo is like a cartoon, trussed up to a pole and a torch goes by him to light the fire, to cook him.
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"Even the first movie [A New Hope], they're in the heart of the Death Star, and they're trying to do this desperate gambit to get out with their lives and save the princess, where they're pretending that Chewbacca is like their prisoner," he continued.
"The little imperial droid comes up, Chewbacca roars at it, and the droid is like a scared dog."
The Mandalorian seasons 1-2 are streaming now on Disney+. Season 3 is in production. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the entire Skywalker Saga are available on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K now, as well as on Disney+.
