Disney and Lucasfilm have finally fallen in love with a director offering Star Wars The Last Jedi helmer, Rian Johnson, a deal to take charge of a new Star Wars trilogy. This will be unrelated to the Skywalker saga he is adding to with Episode VIII.
Related: Star Wars News
Johnson, whose Last Jedi isn’t out in cinemas until December 15th, has been given directorial and writing duties on the trilogy which will also see Johnson working alongside his longtime collaborator Ram Bergman.
“We all loved working with Rian on ‘The Last Jedi,’” said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm. “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 and Bergman were pretty delighted themselves at the deal, in a joint statement the pair said, “We had the time of our lives collaborating with Lucasfilm and Disney on ‘The Last Jedi, Star Wars’ is the greatest modern mythology and we feel very lucky to have contributed to it. We can’t wait to continue with this new series of films.”
Johnson also took to the twitterosphere to give his thoughts,
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
Also coming out of the Disney/Star Wars camp during the company’s quarterly earnings call is the news that the saga will also be getting its very own TV series which will air on Disney’s new entertainment streaming platform which is due to launch at the end of 2019.
No details have been made available as to what the series will focus on but the streaming platform would produce four to five original movies a year for the service, in addition to the original TV series. Iger said it would not have traditional advertising in the form of commercials.
