With the latest Star Wars release only about a month away, the anticipation for Rian Johnson’s seemingly sole contribution to the space opera mega-franchise is beginning to peak. With media roll out slowly picking up steam (the second full trailer already hitting nearly 36 million views on YouTube), the world was ready to enjoy Star Wars: Last Jedi as the penultimate film in a new trilogy that has invigorated the franchise. But today, something truly remarkable happened. Out of nowhere, the powers that be at Lucasfilm announced that Johnson is going to create an entirely NEW Star Wars trilogy. With his longtime create partner Ram Bergman taking over producing duties, the potential to explore the galaxy knows no bounds!
This is huge news for the Star Wars media empire (excuse the pun). Lucasfilm exec Kathleen Kennedy has talked about continuing the franchise for a decade or more. How the Mouse was going to do has now been answered. The details about what period of the Star Wars mythos will be explored is not present in the press release (see below), nor is there any concrete details about release dates. But since we’re on track for the Han Solo film next year and Episode IX after that, the earliest we’ll see these films will be 2020 or so.
’Tis an exciting time to be a Star Wars fan!
For director Rian Johnson, Star Wars: The Last Jedi was just the beginning of his journey in a galaxy far, far away.
Lucasfilm is excited to announce that Johnson will create a brand-new Star Wars trilogy, the first of which he is also set to write and direct, with longtime collaborator Ram Bergman onboard to produce.
As writer-director of The Last Jedi, Johnson conceived and realized a powerful film of which Lucasfilm and Disney are immensely proud. In shepherding this new trilogy, which is separate from the episodic Skywalker saga, Johnson will introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored.
“We all loved working with Rian on The Last Jedi,” said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm. “He’s a creative force, and watching him craft The Last Jedi from start to finish was one of the great joys of my career. Rian will do amazing things with the blank canvas of this new trilogy.”
“We had the time of our lives collaborating with Lucasfilm and Disney on The Last Jedi,” Johnson and Bergman said in a joint statement. “Star Wars is the greatest modern mythology and we feel very lucky to have contributed to it. We can’t wait to continue with this new series of films.”
Johnson’s upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi arrives in U.S. theaters on Dec. 15, 2017.
No release dates have been set for the new films, and no porgs were available for comment.
If they really cared about the franchise this would all be Legends based. #GiveUsLegends
I really loved reading your blog. I also found your posts very interesting. In fact after reading, I had to go show it to my friend and he ejoyed it as well!
For entertainment sake, it would be nice to see it be entirely apart from the Skywalker storyline and time frame. Give me a space opera set in a new star system 200 years before or after. No Death Star. No storm troopers. No cameos.
Nick, I’m pretty sure that is the intention of the new trilogy. There’s also been an announcement of a Star Wars live action show for Disney’s eventual entry into the streaming market.
I guess Disney are sick of director issues and are doubling down on those who can work in a producer lead system good for Rian Johnson and J. J. Abrams but not for many others.
Comments are closed.