On December 10, during the massive Disney investor call, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy laid out the future of Star Wars, both in theaters and on the Disney+ streaming service. Nine shows and two feature films are en route to bring fans and audiences to the world-famous faraway galaxy in the coming years… but among them all, one project, already announced years prior, was missing from the lineup. Rian Johnson’s Star Wars trilogy did not make an appearance at the Lucasfilm blow-out, leading many to wonder if it even exists at all.
The absence of what was at one point the designated future of the biggest original film franchise on the planet is as loaded and complicated as the relationship between the brand and the Oscar-nominated writer-director. The fate of the missing Star Wars trilogy from Rian Johnson is inexorably linked to the aftermath of his contribution to the Skywalker canon, 2017’s Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.
Announced on November 9, 2017, a month before The Last Jedi made its cultural impact, Rian Johnson’s untitled Star Wars trilogy was revealed as the next big saga, free from the constraints of the Skywalker family. In an official post on StarWars.com, Lucasfilm praised Johnson and his efforts: “As writer-director of The Last Jedi, Johnson conceived and realized a powerful film of which Lucasfilm and Disney are immensely proud.”
Surprising though it may seem today, the news was initially welcomed with open arms by Star Wars fans across the board - without knowing how Johnson would challenge and deconstruct the basic elements of their favorite franchise, this announcement communicated the studio’s confidence and pride in the forthcoming Episode VIII to those looking forward to its release the most. The next era of Star Wars cinema would come from a critically-celebrated storyteller with deep adoration for the material - the future was bright.
One month later, many of the same fans looking forward to the Rian Johnson trilogy were sputtering and snarling about his Star Wars film after storming out of movie theaters worldwide. The Last Jedi divided the franchise’s massive following in a way no singular piece of Star Wars media had ever before. Despite a huge box office return and extremely positive reviews from critics, the movie remains contentious, now serving as something of a litmus test for hardcore Star Wars fans.
In the three years following The Last Jedi’s release, the future of Star Wars has changed dramatically. In 2017, Disney’s plans were composed of spinoff films, led by the “Star Wars Story” series - after 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story underperformed, it became clear Star Wars was not as bulletproof as Disney assumed. Former Disney CEO Bob Iger announced the franchise’s output would be receiving a hiatus after the Skywalker saga’s finale: “The conclusion that we reached was three years was the proper amount of time to not only take a breather and reset, but to really gear up for the next films released,” Iger said during the MoffetNathanson Media & Communications Summit in May 2019.
The Knives Out director’s trilogy has also been an easy way for his loudest critics to spread misinformation. In February 2019, Rian Johnson dispelled widespread rumors his trilogy had been canceled. “No it isn’t true, I’m still working on the trilogy. With all due respect to the movie bros, who I’m sure are lovely kind bros with good fraternal intentions,” Johnson tweeted. As the director alludes in his tweet, it’s likely the rumor was created in bad faith by Star Wars fans who may not have been fully satisfied by Johnson's creative choices.
The most significant piece of evidence is the rhythm at which the franchise currently operates. Mainline Star Wars media following The Last Jedi steered in a direction arguably opposite to Johnson’s artistic intentions. Although an official reason has never been given, it is widely-assumed the vicious backlash to The Last Jedi blindsided Lucasfilm’s executives, who then put into motion a contingency plan to win back fans who were put off by Johnson’s incredibly bold and divisive story decisions.
This directional change was at its most obvious in The Last Jedi’s follow-up. 2019’s Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker reworked and removed parts of Episode VIII’s lasting implications, twisting and contorting them to fit with elements common to Star Wars mythos, from resurrected classic villains to the reintegration of genetically-selected Force-sensitive bloodlines. It is difficult to imagine a director returning to a franchise whose immediate sequel to their film was pathologically obsessed with erasing its predecessor, especially given Johnson’s lifelong personal connection to Star Wars as both a fan and filmmaker.
More recently, the second season of The Mandalorian echoes the fan-favored intentions of The Rise of Skywalker, sidelining its central duo in favor of copious cameos, easter eggs, and backdoor pilots, not-so-subtle fanservice likely designed to keep as many hardcore fans glued to the franchise as possible. The finale’s surprise post-credits announcement of a Boba Fett series is, presumably, the final Star Wars announcement for the foreseeable future, and with two feature films in the works from two celebrated filmmakers, Star Wars cinema has a future after the Skywalker saga… Just not with Rian Johnson.
It is currently impossible to definitively determine if the Rian Johnson Star Wars trilogy is officially canceled, as neither Lucasfilm nor Johnson himself has publicly spoken about the project in over a year. However, given the franchise intentions of the Star Wars media that immediately came after The Last Jedi, alongside the plans for the future now publicized and on calendars for years to come, all of it indicates the future of Star Wars doesn’t belong to never-before-known residents of the galaxy, but instead the many familiar faces that have stuck with audiences for generations.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is available now on Blu-Ray and Digital.