There’s probably no topic in the history of Star Wars that has gotten Star Wars fans as angry as much as that of Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Not the Ewoks, not Jar Jar Binks, not “Greedo shoots first.” Not even the firing of Gina Carano.
To some, Johnson’s 2017 movie is a masterpiece, one that did inventive things with the Star Wars formula and also featured filmmaking flourishes unseen since the time of the original Star Wars trilogy. To others, it’s an abomination, full of plot holes, annoying new characters, and a “SJW” propaganda.
More than three years later, those who care about Star Wars are still fighting the Last Jedi Wars, even if both factions agree that The Rise of Skywalker, the 2019 follow-up that undid numerous plot points of Johnson’s film, really sucked.
Johnson went on to direct the mostly beloved murder-mystery Knives Out in 2019, and prior to the release of The Last Jedi, it had been announced that he was going to be directing not only a future Star Wars movie but an entire trilogy. It wasn’t clear when the trilogy might arrive, or what storylines in the Star Wars universe it might cover.
In the years since, there had been almost nothing announced about this trilogy, and Disney, throughout their time owning the Lucasfilm property, has often announced projects, and directors of them, only for those projects to get delayed or never happen. So the assumption among most has been that the Johnson trilogy project was dead, especially after Disney held an event last December when they announced over a hundred new projects, and none of them were Johnson’s Star Wars movies.
So, many were surprised Tuesday when word came that the Johnson Star Wars trilogy remains alive.
Reporter Sariah Wilson of USA Today, who recently interviewed Johnson, said on Twitter that Johnson told her the films are still in development.
“Yes, Rian’s SW trilogy is still on. No dates or timelines because he has other projects going on, but it is happening.”
Disney said in December that the next new Star Wars movie will be Rogue Squadron, which will be directed by Wonder Woman‘s Patty Jenkins. The film, per the official Star Wars website, “will introduce a new generation of starfighter pilots as they earn their wings and risk their lives in a boundary-pushing, high-speed thrill-ride, and move the saga into the future era of the galaxy.”
Lucasfilm also said that a Star Wars movie directed by Taika Waititi was in development, along with a few different Disney+ TV series set in the Star Wars universe.
Since Star Wars movies take a long time to produce, and there’s no indication of a title or even a start date for Johnson’s trilogy, we’re likely to be waiting for those films for a while. But once they arrive? The arguments about them are going to make the Gina Carano discourse look like nothing.
