In the most recent episode of First We Feast’s Hot Ones, Simu Liu was asked to talk about his favorite Jedi. Who knew the Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings actor was such a massive Star Wars fan as to go in-depth with his take on the Jedi Order, and in terms of prequel lore, no less?
The MCU’s latest superhero flick takes a lot of influence from Asian cinema and their mythos, which is coincidentally also where George Lucas took most of his inspiration when developing the fictional universe of the galaxy far, far away. Indeed, the legendary filmmaker has noted time and again that Star Wars was largely inspired by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s filmography.
Notwithstanding the obvious parallels between the mythological themes of these movies, though, it seems that Star Wars itself is a subject Liu has given much thought to. When asked about his favorite Jedi, the Canadian thespian went into detail breaking down what he thinks about the ancient order of Force-wielders.
“It’s got to be Qui-Gon Jinn,” He said. “I feel like, look I don’t know how deep you are in Star Wars. All right so, this whole idea of the Jedi during the Old Republic just feels like if you look at those Council scenes where everyone’s so stuck up. They’re all just like, ‘These are the rules. We don’t ever break the rules.’ And by the way very hypocritical too because the Jedi are supposed to not want power. They’re like, ‘We have no thirst for power.’ And there’s literally a Council that oversees everything. That’s like in the highest part of Coruscant. So anyway I just love that Qui-Gon is a bit of a maverick. He doesn’t care. He’s like, ‘Sorry I’m gonna train this kid.’ And ultimately that kid is gonna grow up to become Darth Vader and overthrow the entire Republic. But still, you’ve got to admire the guy that can see through the hypocrisy of the Jedi Order. They think they’re the good guys. They’re like, ‘Oh yeah we’re so good.’ But really they’re the instruments of their own demise in a way.”
Simu Liu actually makes a good point about the hypocrisy of the Jedi Order. And in hindsight, Qui-Gon was truly the only rogue freethinking Jedi Master who took matters into his own hand and disregarded the long-held biases of the Jedi Order, some of which even afflicted the likes of Master Yoda.
What are your thoughts on this opinion, though? Sound off below.