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PRESS RELEASE SOURCE: VARIETY (ZACK SHARF)
Cover Image – ©Walt Disney Co./courtesy Everett / Everett Collection
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Rian Johnson told Variety in October that talks are continuing with LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy about his potential next Star Wars movie. But what if Johnson, the director who upended the franchise with 2017’s divisive “The Last Jedi, never gets to make another “Star Wars” movie? It won’t be the end of the world, he recently told Insider, although it would be sad.
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“It wouldn’t be the end of the world for anyone, I think,” Johnson said about never getting to make another “Star Wars” movie. “But I would be sad. I love the world. I love the people. I love ‘Star Wars’ fans. I love the passion of how they engage in it, there’s nothing like telling a story in this world and then experiencing people truly connecting to it and letting you know that. It’s extraordinary.”
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“I’m hoping I get to do it again, but nothing is the end of the world until the end of the world actually happens, which, what day of the week is it?” Johnson added.
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It’s been five years since Johnson’s “The Last Jedi” earned critical acclaim and a hugely polarizing fan response. Around the the time of the film’s release, Lucasfilm announced that Johnson would be sticking with the studio to develop a new “Star Wars” trilogy. That’s about the only news that has ever come out about the project in the five years since.
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“I have talked to Kathy [Kathleen Kennedy] about it and we’re still talking about it,” Johnson told Variety‘s earlier this year. “I had such an amazing experience making ‘The Last Jedi.’ It’s entirely a matter of scheduling. For me, putting this [‘Glass Onion’] out and making the next one of these…the answer is I don’t know.”
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When asked directly if we will definitively see a new Rian Johnson “Star Wars” trilogy in the future, he answered, “God I hope so.”
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Despite the divisive fan response, Johnson told Empire magazine in August that he remains “even more proud” of “The Last Jedi” five years later, saying, “When I was up at bat, I really swung at the ball.”
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“I think it’s impossible for any of us to approach ‘Star Wars’ without thinking about it as a myth that we were raised with, and how that myth, that story, baked itself into us and affected us,” Johnson added. “The ultimate intent was not to strip away — the intent was to get to the basic, fundamental power of myth. And ultimately I hope the film is an affirmation of the power of the myth of ‘Star Wars’ in our lives.”
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Johnson is currently making the press rounds in support of his “Knives Out” sequel “Glass Onion,” which starts streaming Dec. 23 on Netflix.
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Here’s hoping he never gets the chance. The Last Jedi was awful and ruined the sequel trilogy.