New Star Wars Trilogy Announced (Rian Johnson) (1 Viewer)

[SamT]

Rian Johnson, Writer-Director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, to Create All-New Star Wars Trilogy

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.

StarWars.com

 

[Wayne_j]

Rian Johnson to create new trilogy introducing new characters that Star Wars has never explored. No release dates have been set.

 

[Jake Lipson]

New characters are fine, but if it's not connected to the galaxy that we know and which Lucas established, I'm not really sure what exactly makes this Star Wars.

It also seems odd to me that Johnson would jump right back into this instead of doing Episode IX, which he was offered and declined.

 

[dpippel]

I've got a bad feeling about this...

 

[Carabimero]

It also seems odd to me that Johnson would jump right back into this instead of doing Episode IX, which he was offered and declined.

Rian didn't direct IX because he is exhausted. This gives him some time to rest and start from a blank canvas. It also just ramped up my expectations of THE LAST JEDI, which were already high.

 

[SamT]

So we shouldn't suppose this is the Obi-Wan trilogy?

 

[Wayne_j]

Correct, based on everything they have said there is no possible way this is an obi-wan trilogy.

 

[joshEH]

Woah. So apparently The Last Jedi is so good that Lucasfilm basically went, "Here's the keys."

The only thing that would make me happier is an Ahsoka-Ventress road trip movie taking place after the Clone Wars. Never going to happen, but I'll keep beating that drum.

This is awesome news, but it doesn't explicitly say he'll be writing/directing all of them, so he may be in a role that allows him to work on other things simultaneously. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the deal he cut to fund his other projects. I do hope he goes the path of Nolan, using these brand-tentpoles to give himself more and more freedom in his original work.

 

[SamT]

Personally I think this is exciting news. This could have been the actual new Star Wars trilogy, freed from all the previous movies with fresh new blood. Would be interesting to know if it's in the future or in the past?

 

[Tino]

Definitely not in the past. Thank god it’s not an Obi Wan trilogy or something like that. Yawn.

And I’m sure he will be fired if The Last Jedi
underperforms.

 

[TravisR]

Woah. So apparently The Last Jedi is so good that Lucasfilm basically went, "Here's the keys."

Exactly. The movie was finished a month & a half ago, there was no craziness like the other movies and they gave him three more movies so they must be real happy with Johnson and The Last Jedi.

EDIT: It's getting lost in the shuffle of the new movie but it's also being reported that there's a live action TV series coming in late 2019 too. It's going to be on Disney's streaming service (ugh). http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/star-wars-tv-series-disney-streaming-service-1202611408/

 

[Robert Crawford]

I was in college when the first Star Wars film came out so once this last film of this current trilogy is released, I'm probably done with Star Wars films. Right now, I have little interest in a new trilogy with different characters. If I'm still alive and kicking on this earth when the new trilogy does come out, I reserve the right to change my mind though.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I'm glad this new trilogy "is separate from the episodic Skywalker saga". I hope they stick with Lucas's plan that the main saga films are an intergenerational family drama, where the family in question just so happens be at the center of the events which shape the galaxy. It's also too soon to launch into a X-XII trilogy. Let a couple decades pass first.

The Star Wars universe is a big huge place, and the anthology films haven't been great so far about exploring it. Hopefully unburdened by working within a preexisting narrative framework, this trilogy really shows us something we haven't seen before.

I wouldn't be surprised if Johnson's role is very similar to Lucas's in the original trilogy: write and direct the first movie, and then be a very hands-on executive producer with a "Story By" or maybe a co-write credit on the second and third films.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The Star Wars universe is a big huge place, and the anthology films haven't been great so far about exploring it.

I think this is the key to the Star Wars future. Rogue One had some good moments, but almost a year later, it still feels to me like a film that shouldn't have been made. I think the Rebels animated show is doing a far better job of covering the same territory, and in a way that feels more organic and less obviously ret-conned.

I guess my biggest issue with Rogue One is that it seems like a solution in search of a problem. One of the central premises of the movie is fixing a supposed plot hole about how the Death Star was so easily destroy-able. And to me, that was never a plot hole. I figured that it was hubris that caused the Empire not to be able to conceive that their super weapon could be defeated, and the actions of everyone on the Death Star in the original film pretty much confirms this for me. Only Vader seems in tune to the idea that it wasn't indestructible when he warns them not to put too much stock in their "technological terror". I don't think the idea that the Death Star was intentionally sabotaged by the engineer who built it is supported by the original film, which makes Rogue One a fun movie to watch, but not one that I can accept as "real".

That's the first time I ever really had that feeling with a Star Wars thing.

I think future films will be better served by getting as far away from George's original films as humanly possible. From a practical production standpoint, it'll be easier for new filmmakers to make a movie that doesn't contradict what came before, which will make Kathleen Kennedy's job easier in terms of being able to pick filmmakers and give them more control. And from a fan standpoint, it'll be fun watching a new Star Wars movie not comparing it to all of the ones that came before, not trying to fit it into a box it doesn't fit into, and not being able to anticipate what was going to happen onscreen next.

 

[joshEH]

Perhaps there is a day when it is *not* good to be a Star Wars uber-nerd.

 

[questrider]

This is what fans have been clamoring for since new Star Wars films were imminent when it was announced Disney bought Lucasfilm. And Rian Johnson is certainly a filmmaker who is fit to expand the Star Wars universe. The Skywalker saga is finished once Episode IX is released so to start something completely new is a bold step. I wish Johnson well and look forward to checking out his new mythology.

I agree with others here. This bodes well for The Last Jedi if Kennedy is entrusting Johnson with the future of the Star Wars franchise.

 

[Nick*Z]

I was in college when the first Star Wars film came out so once this last film of this current trilogy is released, I'm probably done with Star Wars films. Right now, I have little interest in a new trilogy with different characters. If I'm still alive and kicking on this earth when the new trilogy does come out, I reserve the right to change my mind though.

I second that. The original Star Wars trilogy was an all inclusive saga not to be beat or tampered with. What followed was just a lot of retread or re-investigation of themes already robustly explored in the original saga.

Honestly, I hunger for the days when writing 'new' material for the movies was considered a leap of faith that some studios were still willing to take. Today, anything can be considered 'a franchise'. Why not a Titanic prequel, tracing all the various lives of the characters before they boarded the ill-fated liner and then a sequel that addresses what happened to those who survived afterwards?

I think we need a Cape Fear trilogy with the Scorsese film as its centerpiece; the prequel tracing the parallel upbringings of Max Cady and Sam Bowden and the sequel, basically another stalking adventure after we find out Max didn't really drown, but was rescued by some kelp fisherman whom he then murdered and ate. How about a Hairspray franchise? We could watch little Tracy get born and grow up, then jump ahead in a subsequent movie where she is now the mother with a fat daughter who wants to dance to Cyndi Lauper.

If you haven't figured it out by now, all of my suggestions are made tongue in cheek. Nobody would want to see these movies. But Star Wars, like Star Trek, seems a bottomless pit of opportunities. It's not. It's all been done before - and better by Lucas and company. I just can't work my knickers in a ball for yet more weird creatures and newer, more PC friendly characters meant to appeal to the kiddies. Jar Jar Binks, anyone?

But franchise film-making used to be reserved for stories that were incomplete in just one movie. James Bond, The Man With No Name, The Godfather, Andy Hardy, Tarzan, The Thin Man, etc. et al. Today's franchises are just regurgitation of what we already know done over and over again; this time in 'other' galaxies far, far away. I find too many studios are hooked on the idea of a franchise even before the subject matter is deserving of such consideration: Fifty Shades of Grey, anyone?

 

[DavidJ]

I for one am excited about this news. Both for what it means about The Last Jedi and for the fact that Johnson will be giving us more from this world.

 

[TravisR]

I think this is the key to the Star Wars future. Rogue One had some good moments, but almost a year later, it still feels to me like a film that shouldn't have been made. I think the Rebels animated show is doing a far better job of covering the same territory, and in a way that feels more organic and less obviously ret-conned.

POINTLESS FACT: The just released Star Wars issue #38 revealed what happened to Jedha after the Death Star blew up Jedha City.

Spoiler

A quarter of the moon broke apart and its core is exposed and the environment is nearly toxic. Some of Saw Gerera's soldiers escaped and survived though.

Presumably Scarif is in equally bad shape.

 

[Bryan^H]

I think future films will be better served by getting as far away from George's original films as humanly possible.

This is what I wanted all along. All new characters, different time frame than the original films.
I would welcome a trilogy about the first Sith vs. Jedi trilogy. That would be something.