Rian Johnson Gives An Update On His “Star Wars” Trilogy

Shortly before the release of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” in late 2017, it was revealed by Disney that the movie’s director, Rian Johnson, was also working on a brand new trilogy of films set within the Star Wars universe.

However, following the massive backlash to “The Last Jedi”, where many elements of the movie were questioned by fans, there has been lots of speculation that these movies wouldn’t be made, especially as so many years have passed since that initial announcement.  We’ve had a few confirmations from Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy at numerous Star Wars Celebration events around the world, that Rian was still working on this trilogy.

But it seems that this trilogy of new Star Wars films never really got off the ground, as during a recent interview with Rolling Stone to promote the latest season of “Poker Face”, Rian was asked what happened to his Star Wars trilogy, to which he replied:

Nothing really happened with it. We had a great time working together, and they said, “Let’s keep doing it.” I said, “Great!” I would kick ideas around with Kathy. The short version is Knives Out happened. I went off and made Knives Out, and was off to the races, busy making murder mysteries. It’s the sort of thing if, down the line, there’s an opportunity to do it, or do something else in Star Wars, I would be thrilled. But right now I’m just doing my own stuff, and pretty happy.

Rian was asked a follow-up question, asking how far he had got in terms of an idea or if the films had been mapped out, to which Rian said: 

It was all very conceptual. I made Knives Out fairly quickly after. There was never any outline or treatment or anything. 

Lucasfilm has announced so many different Star Wars movies and shows in the past decade, many of which have never come to fruition, especially as the studio shifted its focus away from creating movies to shows for Disney+.   In a short span, we saw multiple shows such as “The Mandalorian”, “Ahsoka”, “Skeleton Crew”, “Andor” and “The Acolyte” released on Disney+, but not a single movie.   

However, now Lucasfilm is pivoting back to the big screen, with fewer Disney+ shows in development, as currently only one live-action show, the second season of “Ahsoka”, is currently scheduled to hit the streaming service in the future.

Next May, Star Wars returns to the big screen with “The Mandalorian & Grogu”, which is basically a reworking of the fourth season of the hit Disney+ show into a feature film.  There will also be a new movie from Shawn Levy called “Starfighter” set to go into production later this year.

There are also movies in development from Taika Waititi, Patty Jenkins, Donald Glover, Simon Kinberg, James Mangold, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, and Dave Filoni. Although many of these projects also seem to be in early stages of development, much like the Rian Johnson films, they might just be a concept of a plan.

Roger’s Take: Lucasfilm has been all over the place for the last decade with its movie division, so much so, that fans no longer believe Disney when they say a new Star Wars movie is in development, because there have been over half a dozen projects officially announced that haven’t happened.  Disney has to be much more careful in when it announces its new Star Wars projects, ideally, not until a script is written and production is set to begin, or ideally, already underway.  Too many broken promises of future films are going to result in fans not trusting Lucasfilm’s new announcements for generations.  

Do you think Rian Johnson should make a new Star Wars trilogy?  Let me know on social media!