RJ Trilogy The Rian Johnson Trilogy

New Half Baked Theory I Haven't Thought Through Yet: A Jedi is in search for answers that can only be found on the other side of existence but the only way they can get there is by dying so he/she devises a way to temporarily die but if they're not careful the effects could be permanent. Maybe there's something that's preventing Force Ghosts from communicating with the physical world and this Jedi I'm talking about has to cross over to investigate the problem. Once they've crossed over they discover that the problem is much bigger than they thought it was. They sorta touched on something like this on the last season of The Leftovers. I guess it's sorta like Flatliners too.

Jumping off that idea I wonder if it would be at all interesting if there as a story about how the Force itself seemed to be dying. There's a sickness spreading across the galaxy. Force sensitive people are losing their powers and the galaxy itself is starting to run out of life. All forms of life are dying. Plants, animals, marine life are all going extinct. Stars are burning out, planets are going dark and cold and the good guys only have a short amount of time before everything goes dark forever. Can they stop the darkness from spreading? Stay tuned!

What about a story involving time travel? My first response to time travel suggestions in Star Wars movies is, "absolutely not!" but maybe they could do something where an old Jedi somehow transports their essence back into their younger self. I guess they sorta did that with Wolverine in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

I don't know. I'm just trying to think of new ideas that could be cool to see in Rian Johnson's trilogy instead of um....using this thread to complain about Rian Johnson and TLJ. This is after all "The Rian Johnson Trilogy" thread, not the "I didn't like TLJ and I don't like Rian Johnson" thread.

 

I think Rian's gig is safe on the new trilogy, but I imagine the story group will take a closer look at his script than they did apparently for TLJ, since this is a fresh start trilogy and because of some of the fan backlash to TLJ, just a ittle more scrutiny and "devils advocate" happening, particularly looking at consistent tone and overall run-time, but I think RJ will for sure write/direct the first episode, outline the whole thing, and then hand pick the directors of the two sequels and executive produce them. Maybe Kennedy/Story Group will have a say in who writes the sequel scripts...

 

Eh if I remember correctly on the SlashFilm podcast Rian was recently on he said that he moved to San Francisco when writing TLJ and met with Lucasfilm people every two weeks to talk about where the story was going so they knew the direction he was taking the whole way through. He also said that nobody at Lucasfilm even batted an eye when he proposed killing Luke.

 

I don't think that Johnson will have much say over who writes or directs the second and third movie. Giving Johnson the task to develop the story of the trilogy and writing and directing the first one does not mean that he also gets to choose who writes and directs the other two. That will always be Kennedy's decision to make. Johnson is the creative lead, not the one in charge of the entire project.

 

Will the story involve Jedi, or their equivalent? Will it look at different Force users? At the Chirrut Imwe level?

Will it be a "The Galaxy's fate depends on..." scale story or something smaller? Only so many people can Save the Galaxy and Defeat the Empire.

 

Wonder if Rian has started writing it yet? Or is that still pretty far out?

 

My guess is he might have some ideas that he jotted down, but nothing really concrete yet.

 

Actually, despite what he says (because he legally can't say anything yet), I think it’s a lot more fleshed out than that. For an entire trilogy to be announced, it means he clearly pitched an idea greater than "Wouldn't a new trilogy be a nifty idea?", to which Lucasfilm then asked “What’s it about?” and Johnson replied “I have no idea, but I need three films”.

Do people honestly think that’s how his pitch went down?

 

Oh I think there'll be artists and modellers cranking out imagery, and ideas being bounced around with Filoni and so on.

They might not have a solid set story, but world building is in progress

 

From the announcement:

“In shepherding this new trilogy, which is separate from the episodic Skywalker saga, Johnson will introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored,” said Lucasfilm and Disney in the news release."

That sure sounds like RJ will have a big hand in choosing what writers and directors follow up his first film to round out what Disney and LFL is saying is his trilogy. Of course Kennedy has to sign off on it, but unless things change, I don't think LFL will be taking RJ's first film, and then changing the locks and making writer and director decisions without him on the two sequels.

Frankly, I think after the fiascos she's been involved in so far, Kennedy is probably glad to hand some of the director choosing over to Johnson for this trilogy. It also wouldn't surprise me if Johnson does the first one, hands the second off to a good friend (but stays involved) and then returns full time to direct part 3.

 

That doesn't mean anything at all. Again, he is the creative lead. That's it. That's right what he is referring to. He won't be in charge of deciding who writes or directs these movies, nor do I think that he would ever want to have that kind of role. He is a director, he likes to come up with nice stories, he's not a producer.

There is absolutely nothing in there that suggests Johnson will have more than creative control over the general concept of the trilogy. Kennedy is in charge, and whether you believe that there was a "fiasco" or not is irrelevant. Just like your thoughts about what Kennedy might feel are.

 

RJ's trilogy will come to fruition. I hope this trilogy is grand in world building, storytelling and its themes, and take the best elements of the entire saga of what Star Wars is really about, and send that message across, reworked. The trilogy's goal is to answer "what's next? another war? why? why is he important? why is she important? why is this story worth telling?"

 

Great new (as far as I can tell) interview at an IMAX screening with Collider.

 

Great new (as far as I can tell) interview at an IMAX screening with Collider.

 

Whatever the plan is for his new trilogy, I am glad it will be something new and done by one person. In my mind, it would have been ideal to have one man's vision guide each trilogy. I really wish they had kept JJ for all three of the sequel trilogy movies.

I'm not really a fan of TLJ, but it did some things really well. (I particularly liked the whole throne room sequence).

At this point I may be more interested in this than IX simply because it will be new, fresh and hopefully will provide some more world building. I think it would be cool to perhaps see an offshoot of the Jedi or maybe even a whole other light side organization/religion battling a different dark side religion/group. I think it would be extra neat to just thrust us into something already happening like the first movie did. No origin stories, please. BARF.

If it's just another corner of the empire/republic I will hit the snooze button.

 

With a three-year gap between movies instead of 2 year gaps, JJ probably would have stayed on for all three. Disney wanted more frequent releases though.

 

He did not want to do them because he wanted to stay in America right?

 

I doubt it. Abrams already needed to be pushed to take over the first one. And it's not like a three year gap would have given him any time to do other stuff either. The reason why a two year gap worked is because they could work on the next one before the last one was ready. That doesn't work when the person in charge is the same. A three year gap wouldn't have allowed Abrams to do anything in between, forcing him to work nine years on Star Wars and nothing else.

Also, they had their directors pretty much right away, it is very doubtful that they ever considered having one person do them all. The reason why they went back to Abrams now, is because they needed someone who could take over quickly, and they couldn't afford to gamble on a fresh face after having so many issues before.

 

I think he could have been persuaded to do all three, if given a 3 year gap. He came back to do Episode 9 and after the prior director's dismissal even, so, yeah given a big salary and more time, I could see Abrams doing all three.

Yes, there probably would have been more shooting in the USA if he had done them, but that's not really a big issue.

 

The last person they need around this new trilogy is that clown. Set in in the Unknown Regions, far away from anywhere his childish imagination has touched.

 

I don't really want a new trilogy, but... well, just give me the story of how the Republic was created, I'd like to see that!

 

I still don't see any reason as for why he would have done that.

Again, if you are doing all three, the schedule being set to three years doesn't make any difference. The only reason why the two year schedule could work is because there were different people working on it. If one director does all three, he will need those three years, meaning there wouldn't be any break. JJ Abrams would never ever have signed up to work nine years straight on nothing but Star Wars.

Coming back for IX as a replacement director isn't an argument in favour of it at all.

 

I want some weird stuff. I loved Mortis in TCW. They probably won't though because they'll play it safe for the casual audience.

 

If Rian intends to explore the mythology of the Force, I see no reason why the story couldn't delve into mystical or more abstract ideas.

For example, I'm quite keen on the idea of a setting far away from the galaxy we've seen so far, perhaps in the Unkown Regions. And since I think that the Force is likely to be the one constant idea running through all iterationd of Star Wars ( to a greater or lesser extent, depending upon the focus of the story ) what would the Force and Force users look like in a part of the galaxy that hadn't known Jedi or Sith? Would the Force sensitives use kyber crystals as tools to focus their connection to the Force? Or maybe some other aspect of the Living Force would serve this purpose?

Maybe the antagonist wouldn't be a follower of the dark side, but rather a representation of the Force more in the vein of ancient earth gods, someone above moral distinctions of good and evil. More of a force of nature.

Perhaps the trilogy might take the form of an epic quest for an object, person, or knowledge?