islandclaws

From Deadline:

Star Wars: The Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson has been set by Disney and Lucasfilm to write and direct a trilogy of films that will fall under the Star Wars brand but will be a completely new story, with original characters, set in a different galaxy. Johnson is teaming with Ram Bergman, his longtime collaborator who after producing the Johnson-helmed Looper and Brick, produced The Last Jedi with Kathleen Kennedy.

Disney chief Bob Iger just unveiled the plan to analysts during the company’s call to discuss its full-year and Q4 2017 earnings.

While numerous directors have come and gone from the Star Wars universe — Josh Trank was dropped from the Bobba Fett spinoff, Gareth Edwards saw Tony Gilroy supervise extensive reshoots of Rogue One, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were replaced on the Han Solo spinoff by Ron Howard, and Colin Trevorrow was dropped from Star Wars: Episode IX with Star Wars: The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams returned to the fold — Johnson has proven as seamless a fit, the antithesis of the Lucasfilm movie-by-committee formula. On the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which bows globally December 15, Johnson becomes the first to get solo credit on a Star Wars film since creator George Lucas did on episodes I through IV.

The filmmaker had been courted to direct Star Wars: Episode IX, but this has the potential to be a better long-term bet for the filmmaker and Lucasfilm, taking the Star Wars Universe in a whole new direction through three films.

Johnson is repped by CAA.

milo bloom

Why would it be in a different galaxy? Do they mean a different part of the galaxy? Dare we hope for Knights of the Old Republic?

Mabuse

That’s not correct.

milo bloom

Here's the official site announcement:

http://www.starwars.com/news/rian-jo...c%7C1147746103

So, same galaxy, different neighborhood.

Deftones

Code for, we tell him what to do and he does it.

Orbi-Wan Techno

Hallelujah! No more Skywalkers!

islandclaws

Of course. These aren't $250mm auteur indies. They give him guidelines and he does his best to inject his own spirit into it, whenever possible. Fighting against someone like Kennedy isn't only a losing battle; it's a career death sentence if you fuck up royally enough.

dex14

The Last Jedi must be really fucking good.

slop101

Cool. Johnson's a quality director with great vision. (he's also a friend of a friend) I wish him great luck.

Kal-El

I wonder if this is the reason he turned down IX. Or if he pitched this first, and was never really in consideration to direct the last film of this trilogy.

dex14

I'm going to guess that is the reason why he isn't directing IX.

Chrisedge

This is great news for "The Last Jedi"...

milo bloom

I'm wondering though if he had an idea that wouldn't work in the main saga but LFL thought it was interesting enough to work up some story ideas and it grew from there.

Kal-El

That's what I'm thinking. Damn.

Artman

Awesome news!! This really has me more excited than anything else.

I"m gonna say this trilogy will be 2021-25, Episode 10 in 2027 (50th anniversary!)

james2025a

There was no way in hell they were ever gonna stop at Episode IX. This could end up as a whole new trilogy of trilogies.

dex14

They've already said there will be Episode X with Rey and Finn. It could be a while though.

Guru Askew

It is if you understand what they’re saying, it is. That’s not me being an asshole, they should have explained it better. They’re saying he’s the only person since George Lucas to be solely credited as both writer and director, which is true. They apparently aren’t counting TPM and RotS (AotC had a co-writer) because it wasn’t a writer/director new to the franchise.

The whole thing is really kind of stupid because this isn’t really anything that has ever been used as a benchmark of quality. Are ANH, TPM and ROTS better than TESB, RotJ and AotC? Was it a problem that JJ had two co-writers on TFA? It’s an almost completely-worthless distinction to make.

Supermallet

This has me super excited. Johnson is a thoughtful writer and director and we can finally move out of the shadow of the characters established in A New Hope to grow the myths of the universe.

DthRdrX

This is awesome news! This guy is just a great talent and the perfect pick to move things forward.

TGM

I'm OK with no Skywalkers... but another part of the galaxy? so... basically NOT Star Wars... and just a potentially really cool sci-fi trilogy.

How about just...


"NOW... in a galaxy far, far away..."

GoldenJCJ

And yet with all this “in a completely different part of the galaxy” talk, I still think it’s only a matter of time before these new movies cross paths with someone from the original series. Star Wars just can’t help itself when it comes to that crap.

JeremyM

This is much better than an endless stream of "character" films--Boba Fett, Solo, etc. And I would expect it will have more ties to the "main" series than the article mentions. Enough to know it's Star Wars.

DaveyJoe

The Porg trilogy.

stvn1974

I hope Spock goes back in time creating a new timeline for these films.