Star Wars' Daisy Ridley responds to Rise of Skywalker reaction: "Where's the love gone?"

The actress portrayed Rey in the most recent trilogy of the sci-fi saga, a young woman abandoned by her parents on a desert planet, who goes on to become a powerful Jedi knight.

While featuring as a guest on Dragcast, a podcast hosted by drag queen Nina West, she talked about dealing with the intense fan reaction to the latest chapter in the series.

"It's changed film by film, honestly. 98 per cent, it'so amazing," she said. "This last film, it was really tricky. January was not that nice. It was weird, I felt like all of this love that we had been shown the first time round... I was like 'Where has the love gone?'."

The Rise of Skywalker received a mixed response from critics, earning the live-action film series its first negative score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes since 1999's The Phantom Menace.

Ridley continued: "Everyone's entitled to not like something, but it just feels like it's changed slightly. I think in general, that's because of social media or what have you. If I went to a film and didn't like it, I just wouldn't tweet about it.

"Honestly, trying to scroll through my news feed in January and trying to not see Star Wars stuff, I'd see headlines and be like 'Oh my God, this is so upsetting'."

Some of the most prevalent complaints online involved the return of Emperor Palpatine and the sidelining of Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran).

Notably, though, The Rise of Skywalker does have many fans too and Ridley appears to be one of them.

She added: "I feel really proud of it and I'm thrilled to be part of it."

The Rise of Skywalker will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on 20th April, pre-order on Amazon