Rian Johnson is one of just two filmmakers throughout the entire Disney era of Star Wars to remain involved in a movie production from the very beginning until the bitter end. Out of the countless talents hired and fired by Kathleen Kennedy over the years, J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens and Johnson’s The Last Jedi are the only films to have retained the same director all the way through to picture lock.
That being said, there are clearly a lot of fans out there who would rather have seen him given his marching orders, and Johnson is still taking flak on social media to this day over Episode VIII. The Last Jedi split opinion right down the middle, with the critical consensus labeling it as one of the best Star Wars movies ever made, while there are a whole bunch of people out there convinced that it ruined the franchise.
Despite such polarizing reactions, which extended to him being widely praised for his contributions once audiences had laid eyes on The Rise of Skywalker, the Academy Award nominated Knives Out writer was tasked with crafting an entire trilogy in November 2017. There’s been precious little information made available since then, but writer Sariah Wilson recently conducted an interview with Johnson where he confirmed that his trio of sci-fi epics are still in the works, as you can see below.
I'm just going to post this now because I can see that I'm going to get a lot of requests –
Yes, Rian's SW trilogy is still on. No dates or timelines because he has other projects going on, but it is happening.
THAT IS ALL I KNOW ABOUT IT. 😁😁😁
— Sariah Wilson (@sariahwilson) February 16, 2021
The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker may have earned over a billion dollars apiece at the box office, but the reception to both was equally tepid. That doesn’t mean the studio is giving up on Star Wars, though, with three new movies already dated to arrive over the next six years, and it’ll be interesting to track the development of Johnson’s trilogy whenever things finally start to gather steam.
