Disney has been busy bringing out a plethora of new Star Wars content. A new trailer for Star Wars: The Bad Batch dropped recently. A show about Rebel recruit Cassian Andor is coming in 2022. Of course, everyone is waiting for the next season of The Mandalorian. For all the Disney Plus excitement, there's been little word about the next Star Wars trilogy. Disney tapped Rian Johnson to create a new trilogy back in 2017, and it is still in the works.
Many thought Johnson's trilogy would have been axed after the controversial reception of The Last Jedi. What they miss is that The Last Jedi was a massive success. It made gobs of money, and it remains a topic of conversation years later. Not to mention, some fans would argue that it's the best Star Wars story put to film since The Empire Strikes Back.
The Next Trilogy - What We Know
Disney announced Rian Johnson's trilogy before The Last Jedi had even released. Clearly, they enjoyed the work he did on that film. The backlash of some fans hasn't affected their confidence in Johnson as a writer and director. Johnson landed the trilogy without even pitching a story. The new trilogy will move away from the Skywalker saga. That's about the only solid detail to be released so far.
Moving away from Skywalker is something Rian Johnson has been itching to do. The Last Jedi pushed boundaries and made some daring moves to inject life into a decades-old franchise. Johnson has said that he wants to meet new characters and go to new places in his upcoming story.
Fans may be worrisome about Disney taking on another trilogy after largely failing with their Star Wars sequels. There are positive signs that Disney is taking a different approach with this next batch of films. For one thing, they've put Rian Johnson in charge of the entire trilogy, a big improvement over their piecemeal strategy from last time. It's also clear that Disney doesn't plan on rushing these films. It's been four years since they initiated this plan with Rian Johnson, and it seems they're still in the planning stages of the films.
What We Can Guess
It's safe to say that Rian Johnson will be bringing plenty of new elements to his Star Wars films. The Last Jedi showed his penchant for subverting expectations. It also showed he has a deep, if skeptical, knowledge of Star Wars and Jedi lore. His democratization of the Force widens the realm of possibilities in the galaxy. Even more exciting, Snoke's death is a good indication that he isn't interested in telling the same "bad guy versus good guy" story fans have seen before.
Disney has indicated their intention to move away from the Skywalker saga. So it seems fair to guess that Johnson's trilogy will take place at a different point in the galaxy's timeline than we've seen before. Previous rumors have pointed to the High Republic era. At this point, it's just as likely the films will take place in the future, after the fall of the First Order. Wherever the films take us, Jedi, or at least Force users, are sure to be a central focus.
What We Hope
Star Wars has always been about the struggle between good and evil, light and dark, Jedi and Sith. The sequel trilogy muddled those waters. Rey saw use in the inherent power of the dark side. Kylo Ren played jump rope with the Force's line in the sand. A new trilogy should focus on the gray areas in the galaxy and the Force. The Last Jedi and even The Rise of Skywalker have already been pushing in that direction. Johnson's casino scene showed a new perspective on the galaxy's endless war, and Abrams's finale had Rey choosing her own path in the Force.
There's plenty of previous lore for Johnson to work with. There have been Force users who find a balance between the light and the dark. They're called "Gray Jedi". Gray Jedi have appeared in massively popular Star Wars properties like The Knights of the Old Republic (which James Gunn recently called the best game of all time). The films have shown Gray Jedi before, without specifically calling them out. The man, the myth, the legend Qui-Gon Jinn was a Gray Jedi. Rey is, more or less, a Gray Jedi by the end of the sequels.
It makes sense that Force users throughout the galaxy would find a middle path. Most would never have exposure to Jedi or Sith training. That's even more true after the events of The Rise of Skywalker. After three trilogies about the struggle between good and evil, fans need something new. By focusing on Gray Jedi, Johnson can show new aspects of the Force, and reinvent what it means to be a Jedi. If the films take place during the High Republic, the Gray Jedi might struggle to operate within the more conservative Jedi Order. If the new trilogy instead takes place after the sequels, the proliferation of Force users in the galaxy could mean there are independent Gray Jedi operating across dozens of planets. The possibilities are endless, if only Disney and Rian Johnson will take a hold of them.