When Colin Trevorrow left Star Wars: Episode IX, fans wondered if Last Jedi director Rian Johnson would be taking his place. He didn’t, but that’s apparently because instead he’s working on three new Star Wars movies that are wilder than anyone could have possibly imagined.
Image: Jesse Grant / Getty
The news was announced by Disney CEO Bob Iger during an conference call discussing Disney’s financial year of 2017. Johnson will develop the trio of films in an undisclosed time period, but presumably for some time after the current trilogy of movies concludes in 2019. An official statement was then quickly posted confirming the news, and that Johnson’s trilogy – being produced with Ram Bergman – will be separate from the Skywalker Saga of the prequel, original and sequel trilogies, and will “introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored”. Here’s the official statement from Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy:
We all loved working with Rian on The Last Jedi. He’s a creative force, and watching him craft The Last Jedi from start to finish was one of the great joys of my career. Rian will do amazing things with the blank canvas of this new trilogy.
Johnson himself followed up with a quick comment on Twitter acknowledging the news:
Obviously I hope you like The Last Jedi. But man now I REALLY hope you like The Last Jedi.
— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) November 9, 2017
Alongside the trilogy of movies, Iger also confirmed that a live action Star Wars TV series was currently being developed by Disney, and will exclusively premiere through Disney’s planned streaming service, set to launch in 2019. It was previously confirmed that the Star Wars movies would be leaving Netflix and other streaming services to find a new home on Disney’s in-development platform, but now they will be joined by an exclusive live-action venture. The service is set to launch in 2019, but a date for the Star Wars TV series was not revealed.