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Daisy Ridley Discusses The Fan Backlash To Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

April 14, 2020 | Posted by Ashish
Star Wars Rise of Skywalker Daisy Ridley Rey, Colin Trevorrow Image Credit: Lucasfilm

During an interview with the DragCast podcast (h/t JoBlo), Daisy Ridley (who plays Rey) shared her thoughts on the largely negative reaction to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker after it was released on December 18th, 2019, and how it took her by surprise. Highlights are below.

On the reaction to the trilogy: “It’s changed film by film honestly, like 98% it’s so amazing, this last film was really tricky. January was not that nice. It was weird, I felt like all of this love that we’d sort been shown the first time around, I was like, ‘Where’s the love gone?'”

On how it’s strange for her to be part of something that was made with such love get a negative reaction: “I watched the documentary, the making-of The Skywalker Legacy, this week and it’s so filled with love, and I think it’s that tricky thing of when you’re part of something that is so filled with love and the people don’t like it. You know, everyone’s entitled to not like something, but it feels like it’s changed slightly. But I think in general that’s because social media and what have you.”

On how hard it was for her to see negativity towards the film on social media: “I guess now conversations are just more public, so there’s stuff I wouldn’t have seen, but honestly trying to scroll through my newsfeed in January and trying to not see Star Wars stuff, I’d see headlines and by like, ‘Oh my god this is so upsetting.’ So it’s been tricky, but then it’s having that thing of I feel really proud of it, and I’m so thrilled to be a part of it.”

Despite the critic and fan backlash towards it, the film did end up grossing over $1 billion worldwide.