Nearly five years ago, Lucasfilm announced that Rian Johnson had signed on to write and direct a brand new Star Wars trilogy. The announcement came a month before The Last Jedi hit theaters. Johnson’s entry was incredibly divisive among fans, but it ended up generating $1.3 billion worldwide. After that, we didn’t hear a peep about his new trilogy for years, but Johnson finally addressed the topic in a recent interview with Empire.
Despite the lack of news, Johnson tells Empire that he still plans to make his trilogy:
I’ve stayed close to Kathleen [Kennedy] and we get together often and talk about it. It’s just at this point a matter of schedule and when it can happen. It would break my heart if I were finished, if I couldn’t get back in that sandbox at some point.
Johnson has been rather busy since The Last Jedi. Back in 2019, he directed Knives Out, which was nominated for an Oscar and won dozens of other film awards. Netflix then paid Johnson hundreds of millions of dollars for the rights to two Knives Out sequels. The first, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story, hits Netflix in December.
Beyond the Knives Out franchise, Johnson also created a mystery dramedy for Peacock called Poker Face which stars Natasha Lyonne and drops in 2022. As such, you can probably see why we haven’t heard anything else about Rian Johnson’s Star Wars trilogy lately. At least we get Andor on Disney Plus later this month, which looks pretty incredible.
Johnson also shared his thoughts on The Last Jedi five years later with Empire:
I’m even more proud of it five years on. When I was up at bat, I really swung at the ball. I think it’s impossible for any of us to approach Star Wars without thinking about it as a myth that we were raised with, and how that myth, that story, baked itself into us and affected us. The ultimate intent was not to strip away – the intent was to get to the basic, fundamental power of myth. And ultimately I hope the film is an affirmation of the power of the myth of Star Wars in our lives.
Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi is currently streaming on Disney Plus.
More Disney Plus coverage: For more Disney Plus news, check out our coverage of the Disney Plus movies and series to watch this month.
