Rian Johnson offers update on status of his Star Wars trilogy

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Rian Johnson made a STAR WARS movie that sparked a few discussions here and there by taking the Skywalker Saga in directions no one quite expected. No matter what side of those discussions you’re on, or what you think of Johnson’s work, it was enough to give Lucasfilm the confidence to hand him the wheel for his own SW trilogy. However, when he will finally get to start work on the first of those films is a mystery even to him, and recently offered a bit of an update on what the timetable is: In short, things are still…in the early stages.

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Johnson was speaking with The Standard for his new movie KNIVES OUT, which just had it’s rousing debut at TIFF recently. Of course, SW was a big talking point in the interview, and when the conversation got to his trilogy, he says Lucasfilm is still figuring out where they want to place things.

“The truth is they’re still figuring out their schedule, their game plan, so if it’s possible for me to squeeze in another film before or while working on that, I will.”

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During the interview, he also talked about the divisiveness of his entry – THE LAST JEDI – which was easily the most polarizing movie of 2017. That being said, Johnson doesn’t think the movie is the most divisive of the SW canon, but rather it’s simply the times we’re living in that makes it seem that way. In fact, this polarization was a big inspiration for KNIVES OUT.

“All of us, we’re caught up in this swirling mass of anger. That polarisation, which is so much a part of 2019, that’s what I wanted to put on screen, so we can laugh at it.”

The folks at Lucasfilm have their hands full with their future slate of SW projects, like the new films from David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and the plethora of content coming to the streaming service Disney+. Fitting in yet another trilogy will be tricky, but if it leaves Johnson time to make more movies like KNIVES OUT or LOOPER, then that's perfectly fine. Johnson has such a unique voice and way of putting new spins of classic genres, so if he can come up with one more original, wild idea before getting back into Star Wars, then Lucasfilm can use all the planning time they need.

KNIVES OUT is in theaters November 27.