Director and writer Rian Johnson has given an update about his previously announced Star Wars trilogy, detailing how he didn’t make much progress before he moved onto other work. Speaking in an interview with Rolling Stone, Johnson explained that he didn’t get an opportunity to develop his ideas for the trilogy before he started work on the mystery film Knives Out, which has led to a successful new media franchise that has taken up much of his time.
“Nothing really happened with it,” explained Johnson. “We had a great time working together, and they said, ‘Let’s keep doing it.’ I said, ‘Great!’ I would kick ideas around with [Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy]. The short version is Knives Out happened. 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.”
In terms of just how much concept work was done for the trilogy, Johnson also revealed that he didn’t even get to the stage of plotting out the story of the films or what they might include. “It was all very conceptual. I made Knives Out fairly quickly after. There was never any outline or treatment or anything,” he said.
Johnson, who wrote and directed Star Wars: The Last Jedi, was first announced to be working on a new Star Wars trilogy in 2017. No release date was given at the time but even optimistic fans noticed the lack of updates about the movies in the intervening years. Earlier in 2025, Johnson confirmed that he was open to returning to the series at some point in the future but couldn’t give any firm details about when that might be.
Knives Out hit cinema screens in 2019 and received plenty of plaudits, including a nomination for Johnson for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards. The director subsequently reached an agreement with Netflix to create two sequels for the franchise. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery came to the streaming platform in 2022, and a third film, titled Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, is expected at the end of 2025, with Daniel Craig once again reprising his role as Benoit Blanc.
This isn’t the first Star Wars trilogy to fail to materialize in recent times. A proposed set of films from Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss was cancelled after the pair dropped out of their deal after signing on to produce new projects with Netflix. Standalone films focused on the likes of Boba Fett and Yoda have also been abandoned.
What is most surprising about this update from Johnson is how little work was actually completed on his trilogy before he left to work on Knives Out. When taken alongside other cancelled Star Wars projects, it seems like Kennedy and other executives at Lucasfilm don’t have quite as tight a grip on the franchise as many would have thought, especially when it comes to movies. Hopefully, those in charge have put more rigid processes in place over the last few years to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
What do you think of the news that Johnson didn’t get the chance to develop ideas for his proposed Star Wars trilogy? Let us know in the comments!
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