news Rian Johnson Confirms His ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy Is Still in Development

Five years after Rian Johnson’s “The Last Jedi” was released, the director confirmed he is still in the works on his long-awaited “Star Wars” trilogy.

Johnson’s “Star Wars” films were announced in November 2017, just one month before “The Last Jedi” hit theaters. The trilogy was promised to “introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that ‘Star Wars’ lore has never before explored,” a similar tagline to what director Taika Waititi recently said of his yet-untitled franchise installment slated for a December 2025 release.

Yet don’t count out Johnson getting back to a galaxy far, far away.

“I’ve stayed close to Kathleen [Kennedy] and we get together often and talk about it,” Johnson told Empire magazine while promoting the upcoming “Knives Out” sequel, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”

“It’s just at this point a matter of schedule and when it can happen,” Johnson continued. “It would break my heart if I were finished, if I couldn’t get back in that sandbox at some point.”

Johnson earlier shared that he is even “more proud” of “The Last Jedi” entry in the Skywalker Saga years later.

“When I was up at bat, I really swung at the ball,” he stated, before adding, “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…. For me, the process of stripping away is always in the interest of getting to something essential that really matters.”

Producer Kennedy told Vanity Fair earlier this year that Johnson has been “unbelievably busy” with his Netflix deal for multiple “Knives Out” films, echoing that it will “be a while” before Johnson’s next “Star Wars” installment will be ready.

“We have to work three, five years in advance on what we’re doing,” Kennedy continued during the 2022 “Star Wars” Day convention. “So that’s where that sits. But we love him.”

The next upcoming “Star Wars” projects include new films by “Thor: Love and Thunder” writer-director Waititi and “Wonder Woman” filmmaker Patty Jenkins. The franchise’s shift to Disney+ series also expands the IP with new series “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” “Andor,” “Ahsoka,” and “The Skeleton Crew,” among others.
 
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