So, is it true that Rian Johnson got spooked off doing a new Star Wars trilogy because of “toxic” fan backlash to The Last Jedi? Not according to him, writing on Twitter, “Lol, zero spooked, sorry.”
Johnson was responding to the assertion made by ex-Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy during recent interviews on her way out the door. Her comments never really made sense to anyone who knows Johnson’s body of work. He’s never been afraid of taking big swings with any of his films, so a fear of backlash isn’t in the equation.
My question is, what made Kennedy say that? Why does she think that?
Anyway, the first we heard of Johnson tackling a new Star Wars trilogy was back in 2017. There never seemed to be any real progress after that. Over eight years, updates were few and far between, with most of them amounting to poorly sourced rumors.
And then game Knives Out in 2019, followed by Netflix paying him a whopping sum to do two more murder mysteries for the streamer. Johnson has insisted since then that he was too busy to take on something as big as Star Wars, and the work bears that out. Other than what he did on Poker Face, Johnson has been committed to the tales of Benoit Blanc.
So that’s it. Johnson said his films never got out of the conceptual stage, and it appears that they never will. I maintain that, somebody, he’ll return to Star Wars. Perhaps not for a trilogy, but a standalone feature or a TV series episode seems doable.
