About five years ago, in December 2017, the “Star Wars” film “The Last Jedi” by author and director Rian Johnson (48) was released in cinemas. Shortly before the start at that time, the producing company Lucasfilm announced a new Star Wars trilogy, which should also be created under Johnson’s leadership. That project hasn’t come to fruition yet, but in a new interview with Empire, the filmmaker assures that it’s currently “a matter of schedule” before it happens.
He is “still close to Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy (69) and we often meet and talk about it,” said Johnson in an interview about his project, which has been planned for five years. Kennedy himself said a few months ago that Johnson was currently “very committed” to working on his two “Knives Out” films for the Netflix streaming service. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the first of those films, will be released on the streaming service in December. After completing work on the third “Knives Out” film, Kennedy said Johnson could return to the “Star Wars” universe and its planned trilogy, with a lead time of three to five years being necessary for the development of the films. “So it’s going to be a while,” Kennedy revealed in May at the “Star Wars Celebration” in California.
However, Rian Johnson is still expressly interested in tackling his next “Star Wars” film, as he emphasized in an interview with “Empire”. “It would break my heart if I didn’t end up going back to that sandbox at some point,” Johnson said.
However, according to the current status, there are still a number of other “Star Wars” films to be released beforehand. An untitled project by Oscar winner Taika Waititi (“Jojo Rabbit”, 47) has been announced for December 2023. This may be followed by a joint work by Marvel super producer Kevin Feige (49) and his screenwriter Michael Waldron (35) and a movie by “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins (51) entitled “Star Wars: Rogue Squadron”. It was originally slated for a December 2023 release, but in May this year, Lucasfilm President Kennedy said the project had been “put aside for the moment” and Jenkins is continuing to write the screenplay.
Changes or even complete deletions from this list are possible. According to this plan, Johnson’s trilogy – should it ever be realized – would then only appear after the titles mentioned.
On the series front, however, the “Star Wars” future is a lot clearer. The new series “Andor”, a prequel to the movie “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” from 2016, will start worldwide on September 21 this year on the Disney streaming service. This will be followed in February 2023 by the premiere of the third season of the first “Star Wars” live-action series “The Mandalorian”, before the mini-series “Ahsoka” with Rosario Dawson (43) as the title character will appear over the next year. Ahsoka is an offshoot of The Mandalorian. The main character was introduced in the past second season of the show.
