Cognition Dissemination: Rian Johnson’s Star Wars Trilogy Should Still Happen

The mere mention of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is enough to send a community of geeks into a tailspin of debates, if not tear them asunder. The movie, the second in the so-called Sequel Trilogy in the Star Wars universe, drew heat immediately after it hit theaters on this day four years ago. Unlike predecessor The Force Awakens, which leaned heavily into the Star Wars lineage (too heavily, depending on who you asked), TLJ challenged establish conventions. Perhaps the Jedi, the film pondered, haven’t been the all-knowing force for good that legends have claimed them to be, among other risks it took. A movie that questioned the actions of characters and forces from previous beloved works was bound to be divisive, but we’re on the internet, so certain crowds went overboard.

I should note here that I really enjoyed TLJ. I appreciated how the film sought to distance itself from its predecessor’s style in not being a retread of The Empire Strike Back like it was to A New Hope. TLJ wasn’t perfect in how it presented its themes, partially because it was the second title in a trilogy with characters established by another director (J.J. Abrams, in this case). Not to mention it somewhat showed that Lucasfilm clearly didn’t have a story and character development plan for the entire trilogy before they embarked on it, an issue that came into a full messy bloom in final installment The Rise of Skywalker.

It’s for this reason that Johnson should get another shot at Star Wars, and Disney was determined to give him this at one point. Plans were announced for Johnson to direct an entire trilogy over a month before TLJ released in theaters. I don’t doubt the quotes from producer (and frequent nerd enemy) Kathleen Kennedy that they all loved working with Johnson on TLJ, and were confident enough to announce these plans through official channels. Now, this is in danger of not happening.

It wouldn’t be surprising if Disney saw the reaction to TLJ and freaked the hell out. I’d be surprised if that didn’t happen. TROS was borne out of a desire to course correct from risks TLJ took, only part of why it was a disaster of a film. A portion of Disney has tried to distance itself from the sequel trilogy in response, though without outright saying as much.

There’s also the issue of Johnson simply being busy with other projects. If his reputation unjustifiably took a hit after TLJ, it was immediately repaired with the superlative Knives Out a couple of years afterward. The movie was such a big success that Netflix picked up Knives Out 2 and 3; the former of which wrapped up filming in September, but the latter has yet to start production. If that wasn’t enough, Johnson’s also directing and executive producing Poker Face, a mystery series coming to Peacock starring Natasha Lyonne. There’s not a lot of room for anything else with a schedule like this.

It is nonetheless my sheer hope that both Johnson and Disney have already ironed out a time when he’ll be available to handle more Star Wars at a future time. If they haven’t, they should. Johnson did great work with characters who were largely already established by directors before him, but the results will be much better with his own slate of characters and world within a larger universe to work with. Whether said characters were among the Jedi or not wouldn’t matter, though Lucasfilm might be afraid of him working with anything associated with the Jedi after he challenged conventions with TLJ. But it provided risks the franchise needed, even if it didn’t nail all of them.

It goes without saying that Johnson should bring cinematographer Steve Yedlin back with him, the biggest person responsible for making TLJ one of the prettiest Star Wars films around. His touch was missing from subsequent films thanks to mainly collaborating with Johnson. Like him, he’s tied up with the Knives Out movies and perhaps Poker Face.

This new Johnson work would ideally be set far away from the Skywalker Saga, something Disney should have done when they first obtained the Star Wars franchise. A work in either the High Republic or the Old Republic eras would suffice. The former will be rich with good imagery and the potential for comparatively unique Star Wars stories if the teaser for Quantic Dream’s Star Wars Eclipse was a good indication (though whether the company will utilize that potential is another question, given their pedigree), and the books and comics released that established the saga are reportedly largely solid. If this can’t be done as a movie trilogy, a TV series would suffice.

There have been rumors from a small number of websites and social media users saying plans for this trilogy have been sidelined, but many of those were posted to throw red meat to an anti-feminist base who hated TLJ with a cartoonish passion. At the same time, there’s plenty of reason to believe this isn’t a current priority for Disney. The upcoming Star Wars movie slate is barren d, and it could use an additional spark that isn’t from Patty Jenkins or Taika Waititi. Should this happen, we won’t see the efforts for a while with Johnson’s busy schedule; but we’ll hopefully hear an official word about the status soon.