It’s been nearly eight years since The Last Jedi hit theaters, and now Rian Johnson is reflecting on his time in the galaxy far, far away—including what could’ve been.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Johnson confirmed what many fans have suspected for a while now: the Star Wars trilogy he was supposed to create never really took shape. “Nothing really happened with it,” he said. “We had a great time working together, and they said, ‘Let’s keep doing it.’ I said, ‘Great!’ I would kick ideas around with Kathy [Kennedy]. The short version is Knives Out happened. I went off and made Knives Out, and was off to the races, busy making murder mysteries.”
According to Johnson, the project was “all very conceptual” and never had a “treatment or outline or anything.” While some fans held onto hope for years, this pretty much confirms that the trilogy was always more of an idea than a real plan.
Back in 2022, Johnson had said he’d be “sad” if he never made another Star Wars movie, adding: “I love the world. I love the people. I love Star Wars fans. I love the passion of how they engage in it. There’s nothing like telling a story in this world and then experiencing people truly connecting to it.”
As for The Rise of Skywalker, Johnson didn’t seem bitter about how that movie shifted the direction from The Last Jedi, especially with major changes like Rey’s lineage. “When I saw the movie, I had a great time watching it,” he said. “J.J. did the same thing with the third that I did with the second, which is not digging it up and undoing—just telling the story the way that was most compelling going forward.”
He emphasized that Star Wars has always been about different points of view: “That means not just validating what came before, but recontextualizing it and evolving and changing as the story moves forward.”
Still, Johnson acknowledged the backlash he got online. He admitted it wasn’t easy dealing with the hate, saying: “It never feels good to have anybody coming after you on the internet… But at the same time, having grown up a Star Wars fan ultimately let me contextualize it and feel at peace with it in many different ways.”
One part of the conversation that stood out was his explanation of the “Holdo Maneuver” in The Last Jedi. Johnson said the idea had been with him since A New Hope, inspired by Han Solo’s line: “Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star.” He added, “We should build the whole Return of the Jedi-esque three plotlines converging thing around this moment.”
But fans online had mixed reactions to Johnson’s new comments.
One said: “It’s no wonder the plot was weird, because two totally different people were working on it.” Another said, “The fact that they weren’t working together for one of the most anticipated stories of all time is just bonkers.”
Several fans criticized the lack of a clear plan. “Not having a plan for one of the biggest IPs in the world is mind bogglingly stupid,” someone commented. “You don’t ‘wing it’ with any trilogy, let alone one this big.”
Some brought up Rogue One and Solo, questioning why Disney was more hands-on with those spin-offs than the main trilogy. “Shouldn’t the mainline entries be the bigger priority?” one person asked.
As of now, Johnson seems content with his current projects—his third Knives Out film, Wake Up Dead Man, is on the way, and he’s even thinking about trying something new, like a musical.
Still, he hasn’t closed the door on Star Wars: “If, down the line, there’s an opportunity to do it, or do something else in Star Wars, I would be thrilled. But right now I’m just doing my own stuff, and pretty happy.”