Rian Johnson may have split the fandom right down the middle with 2017’s The Last Jedi, but Lucasfilm must believe in his vision for the franchise enough to give him the freedom to craft his own Star Wars trilogy. The writer/director’s take on the saga has been in the works for the past couple of years but it looks like things will finally move forward once The Rise of Skywalker arrives at the end of 2019. And we now know a few details about what to expect.
Sources close to We Got This Covered – the same ones who told us Ewan McGregor was returning as Obi-Wan, and that Black Knight was coming to the MCU, both of which were later confirmed – have informed us that Johnson’s trilogy will be very different from past movies. How exactly it’ll differ is still a bit unclear, but one thing we’ve heard is that his films won’t be so heavy on the lightsaber battles. Obviously, lightsaber combat has been a fixture of the series since the beginning, with the fights only getting more elaborate with each successive outing. But it looks like Johnson wants to move past Star Wars‘ dependence on the weapon.
This is just speculation, but we could infer that this means there will be less emphasis on the Force in general in Johnson’s trilogy. After all, we’ve heard that these films will be set after The Rise of Skywalker, so this may give us a hint at how things wrap up in J.J. Abrams’ Episode IX. Or else Johnson just wishes to shine a light on other areas of the Star Wars universe.
In any case, we also know that the director’s movies will likely have another female lead, following on from Daisy Ridley’s Rey, but we don’t yet know who she may be. All in all, though, it sounds like Rian Johnson plans to put his own stamp on the Star Wars saga, even more so than in TLJ, and we can’t wait to see what he’s got in store for us.
