--- description: Find out why Rian Johnson is one of the 100 most influential people of 2023. title: Rian Johnson: The 100 Most Influential People of 2023 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13ac8082bdf6d3bd/698a3bdbdb29877ece268e24/rian-johnson-time100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 13, 2023 # Rian Johnson by Jamie Lee Curtis  Emily Soto It’s ALL in his head. What’s so disarming is that the complex jigsaw puzzles and character studies and subtle political/sociological statements seen in his films—including 2022’s [_Glass Onion_](https://time.com/6235978/glass-onion-knives-out-review/ "undefined")—come out of someone with such an outwardly nerdy, gentle demeanor and cackling laugh. He is prolific AF. His voice and ambition and execution are old-school and new wave all at the same time. His mind is as sharp as a knife and, like an onion, you get more flavor and depth with each layer peeled. Nobody else gives audiences both what they know they want and what they don’t know they want at the same time quite like [Rian](https://time.com/5077310/star-wars-last-jedi-rian-johnson-criticism/ "undefined"). Every movie he’s made is warm and funny and loves its characters and their histories. Who else that has made genuinely great noir, sci-fi, and mystery films—not to mention the best [_Star Wars_](https://time.com/5018112/new-star-wars-trilogy-rian-johnson-last-jedi/ "undefined") movie—can say that? No one. Hedunnit! _Curtis is an author and Oscar-winning actor_ Rian Johnson Is on the 2023 TIME 100 List ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269443/rian-johnson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269443/rian-johnson/"},"headline":"Rian Johnson","datePublished":"2023-04-13T10:32:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:07.399Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269443/rian-johnson/","keywords":["TIME 100","franchise","sponsorshipblock","TIME100 2023"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13ac8082bdf6d3bd/698a3bdbdb29877ece268e24/rian-johnson-time100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt13ac8082bdf6d3bd/698a3bdbdb29877ece268e24/rian-johnson-time100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269443/rian-johnson/","name":"Rian Johnson"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME100 | The 100 Most Influential People of 2023","description":"See all the people on Time's 2023 Time 100 list","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/P6RIsapV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-04-13T10:30:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/P6RIsapV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269443/rian-johnson/","duration":"PT1M53S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269443/rian-johnson/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```