As Rian Johnson makes the press rounds for his upcoming film, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, it’s natural he’ll have to field some questions about Star Wars since his entry The Last Jedi was a billion-dollar box office hit but also a divisive movie for the fans. Recently, he reflected on his feelings for his chapter five years later, saying he’s “even more proud” of it. Now, Variety reports Johnson says that his once-planned original trilogy in the universe isn’t quite dead despite the reception of his sequel film.
Buzz for The Last Jedi prior to release was good. Lucasfilm was so proud of the movie they had yet to premiere that it was announced that Johnson would continue to work with the company long after the Skywalker Saga conclusion for an all-new, completely original trilogy. When the film had debuted to extremely-mixed reactions, there was no announcement of cancelation, but there had been silence on anything regarding Johnson’s follow-up contributions to the Star Wars brand.
Johnson told Empire,
I’ve stayed close to Kathleen [Kennedy], 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.”
Johnson was quick to move on to Knives Out after The Last Jedi, and when that also became a hit, he was excited to start on Glass Onion. Lucasfilm would go on to explore other Star Wars projects. But Johnson has not lost sight of what he envisioned for his new trilogy. “We’re doing something that steps beyond the legacy characters. What does that look like? To me, the blue sky element of it is what was most striking about it. I know the way that I’m coming at it, and what’s fun about it for everyone in George Lucas’s films is figuring out, ‘What’s the next step?’ It really makes you think and figure out what the essence of ‘Star Wars’ is for me and what that will look like moving forward,” Johnson says.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will screen at TIFF, then will be available for streaming on Netflix on December 23.
What do you think? Would you be receptive to a new Rian Johnson Star Wars if it was completely unattached to the Skywalker Saga?