New Star Wars trilogy is on track, confirms The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson: 'It’s just a matter of schedule'

Star Wars The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has said that his planned and announced Star Wars trilogy is definitely happening.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson has reiterated that his planned Star Wars trilogy will definitely happen at some point. The trilogy, set in the larger Star Wars universe, was announced in 2017 but so far, there has been little progress on it. The director’s multi-film deal with Netflix has meant it has been put on the back burner. But Rian maintains it’s very much alive.

This file image released by Lucasfilm shows Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.(AP)

After the release of The Last Jedi in 2017, Lucasfilm had announced that Rian Johnson would helm a new trilogy in the franchise. While there are very little details about what story it would tell, the director maintained it would be unconnected to the existing 9-film Skywalker Saga. However, with no updates on the film since the pandemic, many believed the plan was dead.

In a recent interview with Empire, Rian said he was in touch with the president of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy and things were on track. “I’ve stayed close to Kathleen and we get together often and talk about it. It’s just at this point a matter of schedule and when it can happen. It would break my heart if I were finished, if I couldn’t get back in that sandbox at some point,” he said.

After making The Last Jedi, Rian made the Daniel Craig-starrer Netflix film Knives Out in 2019. As part of his deal with Netflix, the film’s sequel-- Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery--releases this year. However, in a recent conversation with Empire, Kathleen Kennedy had also said that once Rian is free from those commitments, the Star Wars trilogy will be back on track. “Now, everybody’s so busy – genuinely busy and working on things. Rian had such a gigantic success with Knives Out that he’s very committed to try and get that done. So it’ll be a while. And we have to work three, five years in advance on what we’re doing. So that’s where that sits,” she had said.

Apart from this trilogy, there are three other Star Wars films in development. This includes Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron, Taikia Waititi’s untitled standalone project, and one film being worked on by Loki creator Michael Waldron and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige.