Russian Bots Unleashed Campaign to Save General Hux, Star Wars Director Says

“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson reportedly batted off a legion of Russian bots who launched a campaign pleading to save the life of a ruthless military general named General Hux. 

The revelation was documented in a behind-the-scenes film about the making of The Last Jedi that screened at the South By Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas on Tuesday. Johnson’s Twitter account flooded with #HuxLive hashtags early in the 2017 feature’s production, the Film School Rejects website reported.

“It’s amazing […]There’s a coordinated effort by these Russian accounts. Hundreds of them,” Johnson was cited as saying in the documentary that is slated for wide release this summer. 

The #HuxLive hashtag has resurfaced in the past 24 hours with users ironically questioning whether their desire to keep General Hux alive meant they were “Russian bots.” 

The franchise grossed over $16 million in Russia and post-Soviet countries since its mid-December 2017 release. 

“Why the Russians bots love Hux is clear now — they are way into authoritarian regimes — but at the time, it appears to have been perplexing for Johnson and his collaborators,” the website reported.