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Spoiler alert! The following reveals key plot points from"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker." Stop reading now if you don't want to know.

When they say don't feed the trolls, it's implied that you shouldn't make movies catered to their every whim, either.

Like politics and journalism, Hollywood movies inspire their fair share of abusive and abhorrent behavior online. These trolls aren't just expressing negative views of a movie they're campaigning to take that movie down at the box office and to hurt the people who made it.

But in the quest to please all potential moviegoers, there has seemingly been an alarming trend in filmmaking of late that is starting to trickle into theaters: creating films designed to satisfy the most hateful, abusive segments of the internet.

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One of trolls' complaints about Daisy Ridley's Rey: She couldn't possibly be important to "Star Wars" if her parents were junk traders.(Photo: Disney)

One of the most toxicgroup of fans online is a certain segment of the "Star Wars" fandom, and the new film will all but make them giddy."Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,"directed by J.J. Abrams, concludes the latest trilogy about the Skywalker clan that was last seen onscreen in 2017's "The Last Jedi," directed by Rian Johnson. "Jedi" is a film that is systemically hated by many trolls. "Skywalker" makes many choices that are counter to what "Jedi" established, and containsso much fan service it might as well have been made by them.

Many complaints about "Jedi"are either subtly or overtly sexist and racist. The men are emasculated. The women are too powerful. The characters of color don't belong. Rey can't be important if her parents were junk traders.Many complaints are more about story and character, arguing that the film flew in the face of "Star Wars" tradition and broke the rules of the universe.An alt-right troll claimedcredit for tanking the film's audience score on popular review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes (the site has denied this), and there was intense racist, sexist harassment aimed atKelly Marie Tran, who played Resistance fighter Rose Tico.

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Sparks fly in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" between Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) and Finn (John Boyega).(Photo: DAVID JAMES)

It'san awfully big coincidence that so many of the gripes about "Jedi from the bowels of the internet were heeded in "Skywalker." Its a coincidence that Tran's Roseis sidelined completely in this film. Its a coincidence that Rey is suddenly the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine. Its a coincidence that Han (Harrison Ford), Luke (Mark Hamill), Lando (Billy Dee Williams) and even Wedge Antilles (Denis Lawson) all return, some from beyond the grave.

Whether or not "Skywalker" was a direct response to the backlash against "Jedi," it is undeniably a retreat from the risks Johnson took with that film, landing the franchise so safely it becomes boring and messy. The film looks and feels like it was designed by committee, with too many acts, too many fight scenes and too little emotional resonance. It was trying to please everyone and offend no one.

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The redesigned Sonic the Hedgehog, shown in a still from the latest movie trailer.(Photo: PARAMOUNT PICTURES)

This trend goes beyond an overly cautious "Star Wars" film. Two films that haven't even been released yet, "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Ghostbusters: Afterlife," are heading down this same path.

"Sonic" (in theatersFeb. 14) has admittedly been influenced by online reaction.When the first trailer for the live-action film about the video-game characterwas released online, the backlash was swift and vitriolic. In particular, fans took issue with the humanoid appearance of the CGI Sonic. The response was loud enough, apparently, that the studio reversed course immediately, with director Jeff Fowler tweeting that the character would be redesigned.

"Ghostbusters: Afterlife" will be the second attempt at revisitingthe 1980s "Ghostbusters" franchise. The first was Paul Feig's 2016reboot "Ghostbusters," featuring a primarilyfemale cast, which became a slight box-office disappointment and the victim of an organized troll campaign, particularly a racist one directed at star Leslie Jones.

"Afterlife" (out July 10)is directed by original director Ivan Reitman's son Jason and stars Paul Rudd, andthe first trailer revealed an achingly sombertone with littlelevity. The message to fans of the Feig movie appeared to be: The studio didn't take "Ghostbusters," and the man children who cried that it "ruined their childhoods," seriously enough. Now just look how seriously they're taking it.

"Ghostbusters: Afterlife," hitting theaters in 2020, will have original and new cast members.(Photo: COLUMBIA PICTURES)

As loud as online voices can be, they are not usually indicative of what the greater population thinks.Hatred for "Jedi"is a distinctly online phenomenon. Despite alow user rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie receivedan "A" from moviegoers on Cinemascore. The movie didn't make as much money as "The Force Awakens," but it did make a cool $1.3 billion at the global box office. But, sure, everyone hates it.

It seems uncanny,bad forbusiness and terrible for storytelling for any kind of mass-produced productto try to capture the attention of so few people. The rest of us are left wanting."Skywalker" is getting eviscerated by critics in large part because of its undoing of "Jedi." How many more movies can we redesign via trending Twitter topics? Many thought Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman" was too long, so maybe Netflix should cut an hour because some anonymous hashtag said so.

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Although the "Sonic" director explicitly stated his movie's redo was the result of online response, we can't know for sure about "Ghostbusters" or "Skywalker." And there is theslim possibility thatthe first trailer for "Ghostbusters" could be a head fake in terms of its tone.

But even if the storytelling choices had nothing to do with the online discourse, they skirt too close to it. Like a child who throws a temper tantrum in the store for a piece of candy, we shouldn't reward those who abuse internet platforms with moviescurated to their tastes, even if the parent was going to give the kid the candy bar anyway. It doesn't help make good movies, it doesn't help clean up the internet wasteland, and it certainly isn't helping casual moviegoers enjoy a well-produced film.

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Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2019/12/20/star-wars-rise-skywalker-ghostbusters-afterlife-sonic-hollywood-trolls/2690020001/

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Was 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' made to please 'The Last Jedi' trolls? It sure seems like it - USA TODAY