Back in November of 2017, roughly one month before the release of The Last Jedi, Lucasfilm announced that Rian Johnson would create a new Star Wars trilogy, separate from the Skywalker saga, introducing “new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored.” While The Last Jedi was critically acclaimed for, according to Rotten Tomatoes, “honoring the saga's rich legacy while adding some surprising twists,” the movie created a rift among Star Wars fans after its release, mainly for the way Luke Skywalker, the hero of the original trilogy (1977 – 1983) was treated. Its successor The Rise of Skywalker, written and directed by J. J. Abrams, was not able to extinguish these dumpster fires with a halfhearted return of Emperor Palpatine and the revelation that Rey, the heroine of the new trilogy was actually his granddaughter.

Although Lucasfilm always denied it, in the months and years since the release of The Rise of Skywalker there were increasing evidence that the company never had an overarching plan for the sequel trilogy where each director was given vast creative freedom to tell the story they wanted. This led many fans to petition for Episode VII to IX to basically be “non-canon” and to start anew from scratch.

At the same time, it got rather quiet around Rian Johnson’s upcoming Star Wars trilogy. While the writer/director from time to time confirmed that he was still working on it, he could not commit to a release date due to his other obligations. Many believed that the project was dead in the water and would never see the light of day. But now, a new and shocking report from renowned rumor site Inside Star Wars sheds some light on what is actually going on behind closed doors at Lucasfilm and Disney.

It is no secret that the Mouse house is less than pleased with the state of the Star Wars union, especially on the big screen. So, it came as a sort of surprise when in November 2021 Kathleen Kennedy’s contract as CEO of Lucasfilm was extended for 3 more years until 2024. This breaking report reveals that this contract came with a high price tag. Inside Star Wars got a hold of an internal e-mail sent to Kennedy on October 6, 2021, signed by Disney CEO Bob Chapek and chairman of Disney Studio Content Alan Bergman. In the email, the Disney bosses accused Kennedy of losing control over the Star Wars franchise and demanded a drastic step to bring the lurching juggernaut back on track:

“The fact, that you have messed up the last trilogy can no longer be denied. Not only have your actions cost our company and our shareholders millions and millions of dollars, but also led an all-out war among lifelong Star Wars fans, which is a serious threat to the reputation of Lucasfilm Ltd. and Disney as a whole. So, it is not only our responsibility but our obligation to implement the following course of action:
The Walt Disney Company is willing to extend your contract as CEO of Lucasfilm Ltd. for another 3 years. This will be done under the non-negotiable condition, that The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker, released between 2015 and 2019 will be deemed as “Legends” and will no longer be part of official Star Wars lore. As a substitute, Lucasfilm Ltd. will both finance and produce three new Star Wars movies, tentatively titled Episode VII, Episode VIII, and Episode IX, to be written and directed by Rian Johnson. These three new movies, forming the new and only official sequel trilogy of the Star Wars saga will be released in cinemas around Christmas of 2025, 2027, and 2029.”

There you have it. Not only are Johnson’s planned Star Wars movies very much alive, but they will also replace the existing sequel trilogy. This is the first time in the history of Hollywood that a director is basically “undoing” his own work.

Following this clear order from the Disney headquarter, Lucasfilm was able to establish a contract with Johnson in early November of last year. Johnson committed to writing the scripts for the new trilogy in parallel to his work on the sequel to Knives Out, to be released in cinemas and on Netflix in late 2022.

According to Inside Star Wars, who claimed to have found this information on an obviously not so well protected backup server at Lucasfilm, Johnson delivered his first draft for the script of the new Episode VII to Lucasfilm in January of 2022. The movie would have started only minutes after the events at the end of Return of the Jedi with the forest moon of Endor being hit by radioactive debris from the second Death Star, wiping out not only the Ewoks but also the celebrating Rebels, including Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia. This would invalidate many books and comics that have been released in the Disney era of Star Wars along with the series created by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni where Luke Skywalker was very much alive five years after the events of Return of the Jedi. Johnson delivered the first outline for Episodes VIII and IX a few weeks later, which Inside Star Wars was also able to get a hold of.

We will have an extensive breakdown of what to expect from this new sequel trilogy. For now, we will end here with what Lucasfilm tweeted on March 31: