Last December, The Last Jedi seemed to polarize viewers and potentially put the future of the franchise in jeopardy. However, a new academic study suggests that much of the hoopla came not from genuine fans but from Russian trolls.
- According to The Hollywood Reporter, the paper by researcher Morten Bay titled Weaponizing The Haters: The Last Jedi and the strategic politicization of pop culture through social media manipulation found “evidence of deliberate, organized political influence measures disguised as fan arguments.”
- In fact, Morten found that “Overall, 50.9% of those tweeting negatively [about the movie] was likely politically motivated or not even human.”
- The paper continued, “The likely objective of these measures is increasing media coverage of the fandom conflict, thereby adding to and further propagating a narrative of widespread discord and dysfunction in American society. Persuading voters of this narrative remains a strategic goal for the U.S. alt-right movement, as well as the Russian Federation.”
- This revelation is not dissimilar to finding by Facebook and other social media networks that found Russia-based accounts, pages, and the like seemingly trying to stir up division by promoting controversial opinions.
- Rian Johnson, director of The Last Jedi, also shared the report in a tweet. While he admitted he hadn’t read it yet, he noted, “what the top-line describes is consistent with my experience online.”
- While some blamed the underperformance of Solo: A Star Wars Story on The Last Jedi‘s backlash, Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger recently took the blame for the deluge of Star Wars and suggested a slowdown is likely.
What they’re saying
- Morten Bay, researcher: “[S]ince the political and ethical positions presented in the new films are consistent with older films, it is more likely that the polarization of the Trump era has politicized the fans… The divisive political discourse of the study period and the months leading up to it, has likely primed these fans with a particular type of political messaging that is in direct conflict with the values presented in The Last Jedi.”