BREAKING NEWS – The Star Wars franchise will be handed over to young filmmaker Rian Johnson with the ‘Looper’ director writing and directing episodes 8 and 9 after J.J. Abrams finishes up episode 7….
Lucasfilm and Disney are wasting no time setting up the Star Wars franchise for the next few years because while production is still ongoing with ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’ the mouse house has already signed on Rian Johnson to write and direct the following two sequels in the series.
Johnson is best known for his work directing the surprise smash sci-fi hit ‘Looper’ starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Now it appears Johnson will be handed the keys to the kingdom to both write and direct the next two ‘Star Wars’ feature films following J.J. Abrams, who is currently writing and directing episode VII filming between Abu Dhabi and London, England.
This news comes on the heels of the two Star Wars standalone films already handed out to Josh Trank (Chronicle, Fantastic Four) and Gareth Edwards (Godzilla).
It’s unclear why Abrams won’t return for the sequels or whether or not this was his choice to only direct one Star Wars film without being committed to a decade long run as part of the property.
Still it looks like Johnson will be taking over the franchise starting with Episode VIII expected to be released in 2017.
UPDATE: Several sources have confirmed that Johnson will indeed helm Star Wars: Episode VIII, but it’s unclear on his full involvement on Episode IX. Current rumors are that Johnson will at worst be working on the script for the final film in the new trilogy, but he could still be in line to direct as well. It may come down to a matter of making the deal before sources at Disney and Lucasfilm are comfortable confirming Johnson’s final role with the movies.
Following the news about his new job came out today, Johnson tweeted a famous scene from ‘The Right Stuff’ where actor Scott Glenn utters the famous line ‘Dear lord, please don’t let me fuck up”
https://twitter.com/rianjohnson/status/480056853435396096
H/T: Deadline
