'Star Wars' Fans Make #ThankYouRianJohnson Trend on Twitter After 'The Rise of Skywalker's Release

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hit theaters on Dec. 20 to massive hype, concluding an insane year for Disney. Although it's received seriously mixed reviews, it still, according to CNN, marks the third-highest grossing opening of 2019.

With all the divisive chatter behind the film, it's interesting that a Twitter hashtag is trending which refers back to the previous film, The Last Jedi. Well, it looks like people who are so upset with The Rise of Skywalker are now forgetting all the criticism The Last Jedi received, and are picking the second film in the latest trilogy as the best one.

If you aren't up to speed, director J.J. Abrams helmed the first film, The Force Awakens, back in 2015. It was considered by some to be "too Disney" and too similar to the original trilogy, but was generally well received. Next up was Rian Johnson, directing The Last Jedi in 2017. He decided to flip the script a bit and change many of the characters' arcs, as well as the overall tone. This angered tons of people, who thought it wasn't even a Star Wars film at all.

But things get tricky now. Many haters of The Rise of Skywalker are saying the film was too much of "fan service," and that Abrams, who returned for the final installment, didn't take any risks. Will Star Wars fans ever be happy? Who knows.

The hashtag currently trending reads #ThankYouRianJohnson and is catching momentum on Twitter as fans pause to realize all that Johnson did to create a complex and rich Star Wars story. Both fans of The Last Jedi and haters of The Rise of Skywalker are coming together to send support to the filmmaker.

While it's humorous to see the way fans go back and forth with the films, it's also heartwarming to read what everyone has to say to Johnson, especially after he received death threats over The Last Jedi.

Many fans are especially grateful for Johnson's portrayal of women in the film and how he made sure that female roles were as important as males roles have historically been within Star Wars. People are pretty annoyed that Kelly Marie Tran's character Rose Tico, who was introduced in The Last Jedi and heavily featured, was barely in The Rise of Skywalker at all.

And don't worry—Johnson is certainly seeing all the support. The filmmaker took to Twitter to thank the Star Wars fans for their "passion, creativity, anger, joy, positivity, excitement, engagement and love."

No matter which film in the series is your favorite (and least), you can't deny that Star Wars fans are passionate.