Many of us grew up with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) as larger than life heroes. We argued over which character we would get to be on the playground and experienced countless imaginary adventures through their eyes. Those characters will continue to be our heroes, but the characters of Rey (Daisy Ridley), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and Finn (John Boyega) will be the ones who a new generation of fans will identify with. Colin Trevorrow is expected to kick off production on STAR WARS: EPISODE IX early next year, but the director told Fandango that he's already thinking about how much this finale will influence the younger generation.
It's how it was with us [growing up]. Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia were all characters that we were able to identify with in various ways, and especially with the character of Rey and what she means to young girls right now, and the challenges that she's up against. It is extremely crucial that I understand what actual children are feeling about these stories that we're telling them, and I think it's important that I have kids, and if filmmakers don't have kids, they should go talk to them because they don't see things the same way that we did when we were kids. So, yes, I am very dialed in to that because I think it's a requisite of the job.
Much like RETURN OF THE JEDI and REVENGE OF THE SITH before it, STAR WARS: EPISODE IX will bring this latest STAR WARS trilogy to a close, hopefully in a grand fashion. Colin Trevorrow says that his hope is "to make it as richly satisfying as it could possibly be. I have a lot of support, and a lot of really brilliant thinkers and storytellers around me. Kiri Hart and the Lucasfilm story group, and Michelle Rejwan, and Kathy Kennedy, my producers, and J.J. [Abrams] and Rian [Johnson], and Larry Kasdan, and when you look at this army of brilliant people that we have, it's not me alone. It's a whole team."
As we haven't yet had the pleasure of viewing STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, it's probably too early to venture a guess as to where EPISODE IX will take the story, but we do know that the original intention was to put the focus on the late Carrie Fisher. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said that the minute that principal photography on THE LAST JEDI wrapped up, "[Carrie] grabbed me and said, ‘I’d better be at the forefront of IX!’ Because Harrison was front and center on VII, and Mark is front and center on VIII. She thought IX would be her movie. And it would have been."
STAR WARS: EPISODE IX is set for a May 24, 2019 release.