Rian Johnson’s Star Wars Trilogy To Focus On New Places And New People

Following the announcement that Rian Johnson would be helming an all-new trilogy of Star Wars films, theories immediately emerged about the subject matter of these stories. During a recent interview, the writer/director of The Last Jedi confirmed that his concept won’t include familiar faces or places.

“Well, I don’t know,” Johnson confessed to Wired about his plans for the films. “That’s kind of the exciting thing about it. My entire pitch to [Lucasfilm president] Kathleen Kennedy and Disney was ‘Let’s tell a new Star Wars story. Let’s tell one story over three movies, where we go new places and meet new people. It’s a brand new story that feels like a great Star Wars story.’”

With The Last Jedi being the longest film in the series so far, Johnson has a vast landscape to tell his story, potentially clocking in at nearly eight hours over the course of the trilogy. Despite the space he has to explore, the filmmaker still doesn’t entirely know what he wants to do with it.

“That was the extent of it. I didn’t pitch an idea or a time or anything like that,” Johnson pointed out. “It was just bright blue sky to tell a new story in, and they were so excited about it. Honestly, I’ve been the rigamarole of releasing this movie so I’m just starting to form clusters of ideas for the trilogy, but really the most exciting thing right now is the potential of it.”

The Last Jedi completely dismantled what to expect from a Star Wars film, delivering audiences thrilling surprises and massive changes for its characters.

“That wasn’t a stated goal, pushing it forward or changing it or something. I just wanted to make a great Star Wars movie,” Johnson explained of developing the movie. “The thing is I wanted to make a great movie also. That means creating drama with these characters, and that’s going to mean throwing tough stuff at them and taking it to new places. I wasn’t coming in thinking, ‘We gotta freshen this up! How do I evolve this?’ That was the last thing on my mind. But I also came in trying to be unafraid of going to some places if that’s what the story ended up requiring.”

The Last Jedi is in theaters now.

[H/T Wired]