Rian Johnson Explains Why He's Excited About the "New and Fresh" Future of STAR WARS
As Rian Johnson is out doing press for his murder mystery film, Glass Onion, the people interviewing him can’t help but ask about Star Wars. That’s why he’s been talking about it so much lately because people keep asking him about it. He’s got that trilogy set up at Lucasfilm and maybe one day he’ll actually get around to making it.
But, he actually doesn’t talk about that in this interview! Instead, he shares what makes him so excited about the future of Star Wars and the projects that are already in development. He’s excited about filmmakers doing things with the franchise that have never been done before, things that are fresh and new:
"Well, to me what's exciting is embracing kind of what is that so exciting about Star Wars, but doing it in a way that we haven't seen done before that's new and fresh. I feel like a lot of the voices that are right now working in the Star Wars world are doing that. And that to me is super thrilling, to see so many different types of stories. My friend Leslye Headland is making a show right now that I know is gonna be something totally wild and different. To me, what I think is the guiding principle, is just what's something that we can do that feels like Star Wars but that we've never seen before. That's pretty thrilling."
Headland is currently working on Star Wars: The Acolyte, which should make for a very interesting story. The story has been described as “a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.” The High Republic is set 200 years before the Skywalker Saga begins.
As for as Johnson’s project is concerned, all we know is that he would create a new trilogy featuring new characters "from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored." Johnson also said that he still regularly meets with Lucasfilm and talks to President Kathleen Kennedy about his project:
“I’ve stayed close to Kathleen [Kennedy] and we get together often and talk about it. It’s just at this point a matter of schedule and when it can happen. It would break my heart if I were finished, if I couldn’t get back in that sandbox at some point.”
When previously talking about his plan to explore new characters in his films he said: “We’re doing something that steps beyond the legacy characters. What does that look like? To me, the blue sky element of it is what was most striking about it. I know the way that I’m coming at it, and what’s fun about it for everyone in George Lucas’s films, is figuring out, ‘What’s the next step?’ It really makes you think and figure out what the essence of Star Wars is for me and what that will look like moving forward.”
It’ll be interesting if Johnson ever gets to make this movie. He says it’ll happen, but who knows? Lucasfilm doesn’t even seem to know what they want to do with the film side of the franchise.