Last month it was announced that Lucasfilm has rewarded director Rian Johnson for his work on Star Wars: The Last Jedi with the keys to a brand new Star Wars trilogy. With Johnson’s focus currently on The Last Jedi ahead of its release this week, he’s stated that he’s only at the very earliest of stages of development on the new project, but that hasn’t stopped fans from speculating over the films, with many voicing their support for an Old Republic-set tale.
Well, while we may still see that setting in the trilogy, one thing we can definitely rule out is an adaptation of the beloved video game Knights of the Old Republic, with Johnson telling Mashable that:
“Oh, [the fans] love Knights of the Old Republic. I played that game when it first came out and it was like, god, I loved it. Yeah, that’s a fantastic game. And I understand it, the instinct to automatically go to something that you know and love, that you’ve already seen. To me, what’s really fun is the notion of what new stuff are we gonna see, what new stories can we tell?”
Meanwhile, speaking to Collider, Johnson has stated that it is yet to be decided whether he’ll direct all three movies in the new trilogy, as well as revealing how it all came about:
“It was never in the cards for me to [direct Star Wars: Episode IX]. I was always gonna finish [The Last Jedi] and then hand it off to the next filmmaker. But the idea for the new trilogy was completely separate; it just came because we were getting to the end of this process and kind of getting sad that we had to stop working. But like Kathy [Kennedy] and all the folks at Disney, we were just like, ‘We’ve had a really good time. How do we keep this party going a little longer?
“We were just generally talking about what could we do and I was like, ‘What would be most interesting to me is…’ and then I just said—it wasn’t even a specific pitch, the pitch was: ‘A new trilogy. Three movies, one story. New characters, new places. Let’s start fresh.’ That was the most exciting thing I could possibly think of and Kathy really responded to that and we’re gonna give it a shot.”
In Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Skywalker saga continues as the heroes of The Force Awakens join the galactic legends in an epic adventure that unlocks age-old mysteries of the Force and shocking revelations of the past.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is set for release on December 14th in the UK and December 15th in the States and sees returning cast members Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), Lupita Nyong’o (Maz Kanata), Domhnall Gleeson (General Hux), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Gwendoline Christie (Captain Phasma), Billie Lourd (Lieutenant Connix), Andy Serkis (Supreme Leader Snoke), Peter Mayhew and Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca), Tim Rose (Admiral Ackbar), Mike Quinn (Nien Nunb), Simon Pegg (Unkar Plutt), and Warwick Davis joined by new additions Jimmy Vee (Pan) as R2-D2, Kelly Marie Tran (Ladies Like Us) as Rose, and Benicio Del Toro (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Laura Dern (Jurassic Park).
Originally published December 5, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
