‘Star Wars’: Rian Johnson Hopeful New Lucasfilm Brass Brings In “Fresh Voices & Filmmakers” To Tell “New Stories In That World”

Rian Johnson recently came out to refute a narrative made by former Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy that his “Star Wars” follow-up trilogy fell to the wayside after the filmmaker “got spooked” by toxic online reactions to “The Last Jedi,” only for Johnson to deny that. He’s now hopeful that the studio will bring in “fresh voices and filmmakers” for the franchise moving forward, with Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan taking over those oversight duties from Kennedy.

“I love Kathy,” Johnson told Variety Studio while promoting “The Only Living Pickpocket In New York” (Johnson produces the pic helmed by Noah Segan) at the Sundance Film Festival. “I am excited now to see what she does next. As a ‘Star Wars’ fan, the most exciting thing for me is always seeing when they bring in fresh voices and fresh filmmakers to come in and tell new stories in that world. That’s what I am looking forward to seeing more happen…I had the time of my life doing it. I am now an even bigger ‘Star Wars’ fan than I was when going into it. I would feel blessed if that were to ever happen [again].”

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This comes after Johnson had previously said the “worst sin” that could be done with the “Star Wars” films is being too afraid to shake things up in creativity. Suggesting that focusing on too many callbacks to existing material and not trying new things in that world is problematic for crafting new and compelling stories.

“The Hunt For Ben Solo” was one of various live-action film “Star Wars” projects scrapped (by Disney after being greenlit) that saw Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns trying to get a follow-up featuring Adam Driver (previously worked with Soderbergh on the comedy heist flick “Logan Lucky“) reprising his role.

We don’t know specific details about Johnson’s original movie trilogy he was tasked to write/produce for Lucasfilm (doesn’t seem like the projects got too far as Johnson was busy with the TV series “Poker Face” and his Daniel Craig-led “Knvies Out” trilogy) or what the ultimate aim was going to be, but it sounds like whatever happened there, it wasn’t cold feet on his part. Perhaps, it was Disney that was the ones who “got spooked” over the reactions to “The Last Jedi” and micromanaging to the point of second-guessing Lucasfilm.

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What the future holds concerning operations and new “Star Wars” projects at Lucasfilm remains to be seen outside of Jon Favreau‘s “The Mandalorian & Grogu” and Shawn Levy‘s “Star Wars: Starfighter” heading to theaters soon, with James Mangold, Taika Waititi, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, and Simon Kinberg developing their own features (we’ll see if any of these get past the finish line).