Love it or hate it, Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a film in the Star Wars canon forever now no matter how hard Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker wanted it to not be. When the film landed to incredible critical praise, Disney was quick to offer Johnson more work with the franchise, announcing a trilogy of films from the director. There hasn’t been any news on it at all, though, and with Disney scrapping other film efforts and seemingly moving away from the big screen for the franchise, it seemed like the films may have quietly drifted off to become Force ghosts. However, in an interview with the director, USA Today reporter Sariah Wilson learned that the Rian Johnson Star Wars trilogy is indeed still going to happen, just not any time soon.
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
Obviously, Rian Johnson is pretty busy, especially after the success of Knives Out, but confirmation that he is still working on the Star Wars films is pretty big considering all that’s gone down since they were announced. The fan blowback around The Last Jedi seemed to make Disney a bit more skittish about the film. That was followed by the disappointing box office of Solo and the almost complete retconning of The Last Jedi by J.J. Abrams’ The Rise of Skywalker. Disney even went as far as to say it was putting a pause on Star Wars movies and had already scrapped a few other films that were in the works.
However, Johnson’s movies were never mentioned, and since then Disney has begun to get the ball rolling with Star Wars movies. The Mandalorian and final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars have reignited a passion for the franchise on Disney+, and the streamer has a crap-ton of Star Wars content coming to it over the next few years. There has even been an expansive book and comic series launched. With Johnson’s trilogy said to be separate from the Skywalker Saga, it seems Disney is hoping it can deliver something new and different like its recent successes and avoid the controversy of The Last Jedi.
