Rian Johnson reveals why his ‘Star Wars’ trilogy didn’t materialise
Director Rian Johnson has explained why his plans for a Star Wars trilogy never materialised on the big screen.
Johnson, who also helms the Knives Out series of movies starring Daniel Craig, directed the highly successful Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017. However, it turned out to be his only dalliance in a galaxy far, far away.
As The Last Jedi grossed more than a billion dollars at the global box office, it made sense that he’d continue in charge of the franchise. In a new interview, Johnson confirmed that he was in discussions with Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy regarding a trilogy; however, the director ultimately chose to focus on Knives Out.
“Nothing really happened with it,” Johnson admitted in a new interview with Rolling Stone. “We had a great time working together, and they said, ‘Let’s keep doing it.’ I said, ‘Great!’ I would kick ideas around with Kathy. The short version is Knives Out happened.”
The director elaborated: “I went off and made Knives Out, and was off to the races, busy making murder mysteries. It’s the sort of thing if, down the line, there’s an opportunity to do it, or do something else in Star Wars, I would be thrilled. But right now I’m just doing my own stuff, and pretty happy.”
While Johnson didn’t go into immense detail about his plans for the trilogy, the filmmaker said it was “all very conceptual” and it never got as far as him creating an “outline or a treatment or anything”.
The next Knives Out movie, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, is scheduled for release by Netflix on December 12th. It stars Daniel Craig alongside Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack and Thomas Haden Church.
In the same interview, Johnson said of the upcoming motion picture: “It’s much more a Gothic, much more grounded tone. It’s more similar to the first one in that way. It kind of gets back to the real origins of the genre.”
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