Rian Johnson’s pitch for his Star Wars trilogy was short, sweet, and very exciting

While Star Wars: The Last Jedi is (obviously) at the front of everyone’s minds right now, director Rian Johnson is looking towards the future. His upcoming Star Wars trilogy is going to require a lot of work, but you wouldn’t know it from his pitch to Lucasfilm and Disney higher-ups. He didn’t even include a story outline – but his pitch will make you feel like a child watching Star Wars for the very first time.

Speaking to /Film, Johnson laid out the story of finishing up his time on The Last Jedi and the mutual feeling between himself and Kathleen Kennedy about wanting to work together. “[We were saying] how do we keep working together? And that I threw out… the most interesting thing to me would be a new trilogy.”

Bold. Very bold. Most pitches start small. Johnson envisioned a multi-movie franchise right off the bat. To make freelancers everywhere even more envious of his chutzpah, Johnson outlined his (very short) brief for the trilogy: “One story told over three movies,” Johnson revealed, “Go new places, meet new folks, come up with a new story to tell in the Star Wars universe. The sky’s the limit… and they really responded to that.”

Admit it, that makes you a little hot under the collar, doesn’t it? Niche (relatively speaking) games and animated series aside, we’ve not had a fully-fledged, fresh, big budget Star Wars adventure to kick off a new story since A New Hope.

Everything else in the Star Wars universe has been tied to previous stories and sagas in some way but now… now we’re getting something completely new – and I can’t wait to see what Rian Johnson does next.

Rian Johnson’s Star Wars trilogy pitch offers more questions than answers and - how’s this for a segue - there are 12 big questions we have after watching Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Massive, massive spoilers in that link. You’ve been warned.

Bradley Russell

I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.

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