Paul_SD

They obviously like him and like what they've seen from him.
My guess would be it was offered and he turned it down because he IS a thoughtful craftsman and saw where the vision for a wrap up of this trilogy was lacking.

Of course I could be wrong, but that's what I'm guessing. If they liked what they saw of TLJ and he was hot to stick to the script and wrap it up, I'm sure they would have loved to have him in the captains chair.
Then again, maybe they did offer it to him and he declined because he was looking to enjoy some down time after a grueling, stressful shoot and post production/publicity. This offer will afford him some time to take it a little easier and glide into a large gig with as little baggage as is possible with this property.

GL may have cocked up the earlier life events of already beloved characters- but yo can still go farther back and explore different aspects to the Jedi/Sith conflict. I would love to see some sci-fi-fi fantasy parallels to religious conflicts throughout history- something like the crusades, the Inquisition, or the even how religion was dealt with during the age of enlightenment transposed to this universe. Just as sub text for some basic entertaining adventures.

I envy Johnson. It would be a fun playground to be in if you didn't have to hew closely to dopey established orthodoxy (which is how I'm taking the "in another galaxy" line to read).

Josh-da-man

There's a thing that they've been pushing, albeit subtley, lately called "Unknown Space." If you look at any new maps of the Star Wars galaxy, you'll see a section called "Unknown Space" that includes Csilla, the capitol of the Chiss Ascendancy (Grand Admiral Thrawn from Rebels and the Timothy Zahn novel Thrawn is a Chiss). There's a whole backstory about Thrawn joining the Empire and opposing the Republic/Rebellion because there's something going on in Unknown Space and he believes the Empire will be necessary to battle it.

This could be the direction the new trilogy will take. It's something they've been building up in the ancillary material like cartoons, novels, and comics.

Supermallet

Oh fuck no. They already did this in the now de-canonized EU and it was crap, even for the EU which was full of crap.

mcnabb

Of course SW will always appeal to me and I will be there opening weekend for any movie, the Skywalker Saga movies are the only ones who move the needle with me. I'm glad that they are moving away from the Skywalker Saga and making a whole new Canon because it will breathe new life into a GFFA, but I won't get as hyped for these movies that I do with the Skywalker Saga movies.

milo bloom

Funny you should mention Spock...

An idea I've had for a kind of fanfiction type story for Star Wars would be to tell the Star Trek series of that universe.

Go way, way, way back in time before the galaxy was charted, and show the stories of the explorers boldly going where no humanoid had gone before. No lightsabers, blasters are much cruder, and no Jedi (but maybe have characters who are sometimes a little luckier than others, or who maybe have hunches that turn out to be right fairly often). And focus on the stories of meeting the Wookies, Hutts and Twi'Lek for the first time and how the galaxy of aliens we know and love came together. Do they have a prime directive? How do they deal with their version of the Klingons?

Mike86

No thanks. That doesn’t sound appealing to me at all. I don’t need to know the origins of the universe and how these explorers came to be. I prefer just thinking that these planets were inhabited by humans already.

Mabuse

It says,

I agree it’s a stupid distinction. But it says Lucas got sole writer/director credit on episodes I through IV. That is a false statement.

Ranger

Sounds exciting. I'd guess a Thrawn trilogy where he leads the Chiss against the Yuuzhan Vong with some pirates and smugglers and a dark jedi in the mix. Taking place between Episodes VI and VII so room for a possible cross-over in the future.

story

I like this news a lot. It bodes well for the new film coming up and where we might go next. I'm all for it.

EddieMoney

As long as we still get a Chewbacca solo film

Shannon Nutt

Great news for us Star Wars fans, but it is great news for Rian? Yeah, he's going to be super rich now (like that wasn't happening anyway), but he's also going to be locked into this franchise for most of his life. Then again, it's not like JJ isn't doing the same thing with his talents. The man is 51 and he's directed ONE original movie. One.

DthRdrX

Fine with me. I'd rather a super talented guy that grew up loving the franchise over someone looking to just make a buck or name for themselves.

MBoyd

Cool. I dont see this being related to anything else thats come before,

Don't get me wring, Old Republic anything would be pretty cool.

Josh-da-man

If they're doing live a action tv series, I think doing an American Horror Story-style anthology in the Dawn of the Jedi/Tales of the Jedi/Knights of the Old Republic eras would be an interesting choice. Season-long storylines, each set in a different era of the past.

milo bloom

All Wookiee and no subtitles.

Supermallet

His one “original” movie was just a lame Spielberg ripoff. I’m not crying over Abrams’ lack of original films.

slop101

JJ's a TV guy, always has been, and even with movies, always will be.

Rian's a movie guy. Even locked into Star Wars, I'm pretty sure he'll find time (and most importantly, funding) for his own little pet-project movies.

Damed

Possibly cancelled?

https://www.cosmicbooknews.com/star-wars-rian-johnson-trilogy-canceled

dex14

That article is clickbait and nothing more than speculation.

TGM

lets hope so and it goes to Dave Filoni.

not only was it a terrible Star Wars movie, it was just a badly put together movie altogether.

Jay G.

I just posted this response in another thread:

Mike86

While I didn’t hate The Last Jedi I do think it’s a bit odd that Disney would be gung ho about letting Johnson do his own trilogy when his film is one of the most divisive big movies and a film so many Star Wars fans in general didn’t particularly like to put it nicely.

Jay G.

I don't think the bolded segment it true. There's a very vocal minority of Star Wars fans that dislike TLJ, but I don't think there's much evidence that this accounts for a majority of fans, or even a sizable minority.

slop101

Yeah, pretty much every long-time SW fan I know (people in their 40s) liked or loved Last Jedi.
Don't for one second take it as gospel that people think it "sucked".

Mike86

I’m not but at the same time the people who dislike it are vocal enough to be heard, and it’s bit like it’s really passed either. Even I as someone who didn’t hate the film do take issues with aspects of it. I haven’t come across people (not just online but friends and acquaintances) who absolutely loved it. It seems like most that didn’t hate it thought it was fine but didn’t absolutely love it.