Rian Johnson Wants To Answer Big Questions In His New Star Wars Trilogy

Even before Star Wars: The Last Jedi‘s release last year, it was revealed that Lucasfilm had so much faith in writer/director Rian Johnson that he’d been hired to helm a new Star Wars trilogy that was set to take flight once J.J. Abrams had brought the current story to a close in Episode IX. 

Though we’ve still got over a year and a half to go until we get to see that concluding chapter, fans remain eager to find out what Johnson has planned for his follow-up act. While the filmmaker is obviously not letting the specifics of this slip out, he has spoken about what his aims are for the new series of Star Wars movies. In particular, he’s said he wants to capture that excitement he felt watching the Original Trilogy as a child.

At the same time, though, Johnson knows he has to steer the ship into uncharted territory. The new trilogy won’t focus on the Skywalker family, for obvious reasons, so the director is having to study the franchise and come up with what really makes Star Wars… Star Wars.

Here’s how he spoke about his challenge while talking with the L.A. Times:

“It’s fun because it’s kind of thinking, ‘Okay, outside of the Skywalker story and outside of the recognizable iconography, what is this? What is Star Wars?’ Or what do we need to retain from that, to pull forward for it to still be Star Wars — and what can we leave behind?” They’re all the big questions that need to be thought of. And even the ones that we don’t know the answers to are things we need to figure out if Star Wars is going to be vital and alive moving forward and not just be a waxworks. We’re going to have to figure out how to tell vital new stories.”

Regardless of your feelings on The Last Jedi, you have to admit that Johnson is definitely the right person for the job of moving Star Wars into fresh terrain. In contrast to J.J. Abrams’ loving homage to the traditions of the franchise in The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi frequently defied expectations and had a lot to say about the dangers of blind nostalgia and not letting go of the past.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves just yet. Our next trip to that galaxy far, far away will be Solo: A Star Wars Story, which hits cinemas on May 25th.