Rian Johnson shares plan for scrapped Star Wars trilogy

Star Wars: The Last Jedi filmmaker Rian Johnson has shared his plans for his trilogy of Star Wars films, which was announced in 2017 but never materialised.

While Star Wars studio LucasFilm initially stated that Johnson was going to develop three additional movies, the status of the project has become increasingly ambiguous over the past few years.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Johnson explained that, while he and Kathleen Kennedy, the president of LucasFilm, had brainstormed ideas for the instalments, the whodunnit film Knives Out (2019) had stolen his focus.

Johnson explained: “Nothing really happened with it. We had a great time working together, and they said, ‘Let’s keep doing it.’ I said, ‘Great!’ I would kick ideas around with Kathy. 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,” Johnson said. “But right now I’m just doing my own stuff, and pretty happy.”

Johnson’s third Knives Out film is scheduled to be released on 12 December, 2025. Wake Up Dead Man will once again star Daniel Craig as private investigator Benoit Blanc, facing what is billed as his most dangerous case yet.

In the first movie, Blanc is invited to solve the murder of successful novelist Harlan Thrombey, portrayed by the late Christopher Plummer. The mysterious circumstances surrounding Harlan’s death leave Blanc to suspect that a member of the wildly dysfunctional Thrombey family is responsible for the murder.

Rian Johnson with ‘Knives Out’ star Daniel Craig (Getty Images for Netflix)

The movie featured Ana de Armas as good-natured nurse Marta Cabrera, alongside Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Katherine Langford and Michael Shannon.

Back in May, Johnson told The Independent: “I kind of went down the murder mystery rabbit hole – I’m focused on making other stuff. But that wouldn’t rule out [more Star Wars movies] happening down the line. If I get back in the Star Wars universe someday, I’d be the happiest person.”