Rian Johnson tapped to direct new 'Star Wars' trilogy following 'The Last Jedi'

Disney and Lucasfilm have announced that Star Wars: The Last Jedi helmer Rian Johnson has been brought on to write and direct a new trilogy of films that will take place in the Star Wars universe.

“We all loved working with Ryan on The Last Jedi,” Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, said on StarWars.com. “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. Rain will do amazing things with the blank canvas of this new trilogy.”

Johnson will re-team with Ram Bergman, his longtime producer who helped him on previous films such as Brick and Looper. Bergman also worked with Kennedy in developing The Last Jedi.

“We had the time of our lives collaborating with Lucasfilm and Disney on The Last Jedi,” Johnson and Bergman said in a statement via Deadline. “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.”

The new trilogy will likely take place outside of the episodic Star Wars films, given that Disney plans to focus solely on spin-off films for some time after Star Wars: Episode IX concludes. What these new films will actually focus on is anyone's guess. Some fans, however, have speculated that this could be the Obi-Wan series that has been rumored for some time.

Rian Johnson is seemingly one of the few directors who’s had a good experience working with Lucasfilm. Josh Trank was taken off a Bobba Fett spinoff after the Fantastic Four disaster, Tony Gilroy had to reshoot most of Gareth Edward’s Rogue One, Colin Trevorrow was replaced by J.J. Abrams on Episode IX and Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were unexpectedly fired from the Han Solo spinoff two weeks before shooting was set to finish.

Yet, Johnson has only had high praise for his collaborations with Kennedy.

Now, all we have left to see is whether some Porgs make their way into this new trilogy. No release date has been set for this new trilogy yet, but Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens everywhere on Dec. 15.