Back before the toxic Star Wars fandom deemed The Last Jedi the worst thing of all time, director Rian Johnson was poised to helm his own SW trilogy separate from the Skywalker Saga. Though it seems that Lucasfilm has quietly dropped the project, Johnson has boiled down the main thing that’s been stopping his re-entry in a galaxy far far away.
In an interview with Variety, Johnson reveals that it’s been his busy schedule that’s stopped him from pushing forward with Star Wars. Johnson says:
“I have talked to Kathy [Kathleen Kennedy] about it and we’re still talking about it… I had such an amazing experience making ‘The Last Jedi.’ It’s entirely a matter of scheduling. For me, putting this [‘Glass Onion’] out and making the next one of these…the answer is I don’t know.”
When asked if we’ll eventually see the trilogy he planned, Johnson replied with a hopeful, “God, I hope so.”
If anything, a lot of fans have considered The Last Jedi to make a clear divide in the fandom, from fans who love fresh new stories, and fans who are mostly about adhering to the established status quo. After TLJ, you can say that we’ve been bombarded with material to help satiate the latter side of the fandom, but with shows like Andor, it seems that Lucasfilm is getting ready to embrace more diverse projects for Star Wars.
Personally, I loved The Last Jedi, and though the backlash cost us a well-rounded trilogy, I think that filmmakers like Johnson have the right idea when it comes to approaching a massive pop-culture IP like Star Wars.
Johnson hasn’t worked on his trilogy yet, but you can catch his upcoming film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery when it hits Netflix on Dec. 23.
