It's only been a few days since Star Wars: The Last Jedi bowed in theaters, and thus we are only at the beginning of what will be a long and hard fought debate. Everyone has an opinion about the film, we here at CinemaBlend were even we're divided on it. One of the complaints die-hard fans had leaving the film was that an iconic Easter Egg found in every other Star Wars film was missing in The Last Jedi. However, we learned that indeed "I've got a bad feeling about this" is in the franchise's latest tale, only it comes in the form of beeps and boops from BB-8. But because most of us don't speak droid, we had to be told after the film.Originally there was some in-film clarification and confirmation of the iconic line, as Rian Johnson explained:
It seemed like a fun character to deliver that line. I think originally I had Poe respond, 'Oh, I got a good feeling about it. Keep your chin up.' And then I made it a little less explicit just to make it more fun.
Given the, let's call it vocal, fan reaction to the film, maybe Rian Johnson should have left that line in there. It also would have allowed the Star Wars fans who would care enough to notice to enjoy the line as they experienced it in the theater, as opposed to finding out later after ordering a Human-Droid dictionary (those are hard to come by and shipping from a galaxy far, far away isn't cheap). If Poe's response had been kept in the film, it also would have added a bit to the back-and-forth and friendship between the hotshot pilot and his trusty BB unit. I do understand Rian Johnson's desire to hide the line a bit. As he told the Huffington Post, it does make it fun to try and hunt for the line. Star Wars fans are nothing if not rigorous in their dissection of these films and their search for clues and callbacks.
The classic Star Wars line has appeared in some variation or another in every Star Wars film since Luke first uttered, "I have a very bad feeling about this" in 1977's A New Hope. And not just the saga films either. In Rogue One, the droid K-2SO spoke the famous line, joining C-3PO and now BB-8 as the only non-human characters to say it. Of course, K-2SO and C-3PO both spoke the Empire's English (or as it's known in that galaxy, Basic), while BB-8 sticks to beeps and boops.
If I had to guess, I would say that Lucasfilm is making sure that Solo: A Star Wars Story and Episode IX both have the line and it will be very clear when you hear it. There's no reason to add more straws to the camels back if you don't have to. To see if you can catch BB-8's delivery of Star Wars' longest running gag, check out Star Wars: The Last Jedi, in theaters now.
