On the eve of The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson is currently fielding all sorts of questions about his imminent Star Wars sequel.
Angled as the next chapter in Lucasfilm’s storied Skywalker saga, there’s a great deal riding on the film’s burly shoulders, but with a whole new trilogy on the cards, Johnson and Co. already have one eye on the future.
Said to be “one big story” replete with original characters and entirely new locations – and Daisy Ridley’s Rey, perhaps? – The Last Jedi director is about to project his trilogy onto a big, blank canvas. And though he may not direct all three instalments, Rian Johnson is more concerned with exploring uncharted territory, as opposed to adapting existing material.
That means no reference to BioWare classic Knights of the Old Republic, as Mashable learned:
Oh, [the fans] love Knights of the Old Republic. I played that game when it first came out and it was like, god, I loved it. Yeah, that’s a fantastic game. And I understand it, the instinct to automatically go to something that you know and love, that you’ve already seen. To me, what’s really fun is the notion of what new stuff are we gonna see, what new stories can we tell?
And you can’t fault Rian Johnson’s logic. After so long spent in the Skywalker saga, Star Wars fans are crying out for some fresh blood – or, at the very least, an expansion that whisks moviegoers off to another part of Lucasfilm’s far-away galaxy. And isn’t that exciting?
The Skywalker saga officially continues through the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi on December 15th. And after that? The studio will invite viewers back in time to explore the origins story of Han Solo, before the current trilogy comes to a close in 2019 with the so-far untitled Episode IX.
That leads us to believe that Rian Johnson’s all-new trilogy will get going in 2020 – or, on the off-chance that Lucasfilm wants to take a one-year hiatus, 2021.
