Rian Johnson Talks About His STAR WARS Trilogy and Says It "Steps Beyond the Legacy of the Characters"

There has been a lot of Internet chatter regarding Rian Johnson’s Star Wars trilogy. There are a lot of rumors going around that he’s not working on it anymore. That might be wishful thinking for fans who didn’t like The Last Jedi, but truth of the matter is Johnson is still very much developing these films, and in a recent interview with Observer he talked about the excitement and the challenge of developing a new story set in the Star Wars universe.

“We’re doing something that steps beyond the legacy of the characters. What does it look like? To me, the blue sky element of it is what was most striking about it. I know that I’m coming at it and what’s fun about it for everyone in George Lucas’ films is figuring it 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.” 

Johnson went on to compare what it’s like to make a movie like Star Wars to making a movie like Knives Out, saying, you have to “shoot a lot faster.” He said that he also enjoys writing a story and narrative that is more focused dialogue:

“In a Star Wars movie, you’re usually trying to be as efficient with dialogue as possible, which is a good thing. Of course, I worked with some of the best actors on the planet in Star Wars. You’re just chasing a very different rabbit. With Knives Out, you could write more words and just sit back with a huge smile on my face as they shoot them.” 

There’s no word on when Johnson’s first Star Wars movie will be released, but it’s going to be a long-ass time. After The Rise of Skywalker is released, the next three films will be released in 2022, 2024, and 2026. It’ll probably come during one of those years.