The official release:

http://www.starwars.com/news/rian-jo...c%7C1147744441

RIAN JOHNSON, WRITER-DIRECTOR OF STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, TO CREATE ALL-NEW STAR WARS TRILOGY

For director Rian Johnson, Star Wars: The Last Jedi was just the beginning of his journey in a galaxy far, far away.

Lucasfilm is excited to announce that Johnson will create a brand-new Star Wars trilogy, the first of which he is also set to write and direct, with longtime collaborator Ram Bergman onboard to produce.

As writer-director of The Last Jedi, Johnson conceived and realized a powerful film of which Lucasfilm and Disney are immensely proud. 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.

“We all loved working with Rian on The Last Jedi,” said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm. “He’s a creative force, and watching him craft The Last Jedi from start to finish was one of the great joys of my career. Rian will do amazing things with the blank canvas of this new trilogy.”

“We had the time of our lives collaborating with Lucasfilm and Disney on The Last Jedi,” Johnson and Bergman said in a joint statement. “Star Wars is the greatest modern mythology and we feel very lucky to have contributed to it. We can’t wait to continue with this new series of films.”

Johnson’s upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi arrives in U.S. theaters on Dec. 15, 2017.

No release dates have been set for the new films, and no porgs were available for comment.

According to the official release I just linked, the new trilogy will be outside the Skywalker saga and "introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored."

So, we're getting a brand new story in a different part of the Star War galaxy, with an undetermined time line.

That's a ballsy move this early in the game. Wow.

I think it's pretty obvious the massive success of Rogue One plays a big hand in the decision to move away from the Skywalker saga, particularly so "soon". That, and Rian Johnson must have just crushed it with VIII (or he's the perfect lapdog, as Ringleader suggested. Hopefully not that).

I expected them to move beyond the Skywalker family saga at some point but 2021 is a shocker to me.

I guess this also means, if I'm reading the press release correctly, the next trilogy won't be about Rey, Finn and Poe and that maybe the earliest they come back to that part of the Star Wars universe will be 2026.

2017: Episode VIII
2018: Solo
2019: Episode IX
2020: Obi Wan stand alone
2021: Episode I of the New Trilogy
2022: Star Wars Story
2023: Episode 2 of the New Trilogy
2024: Star Wars Story
2025: Episode 3 of the New Trilogy
2026: Episode X?

Also, a new Live Action Star Wars series to begin in 2019 on Disney's new streaming service.

That's a ****load of Star Wars...

Think they have any intention of doing more than one movie a year? Marvel seems to be doing just fine with 2 or 3 a year.

I'm glad they're going in a new/unrelated direction for the next trilogy.
I have no excitement related to the Hans Solo and Obi Wan stories. Hopefully, they'll use the stand-alones from 2022 on, as stories focusing on important moments in the way Rogue one did.

I'm not all that intrigued by Han, for whatever reason.

But man, I'd be all-in on more Obi Wan. Maybe it's because he's just had better actors portraying him but he's always been one of the more interesting characters in the entire saga for me. I feel like there's a ton of material that could be mined in there, especially if they let him leave Tatooine.

It wasn't as though he was the crazy uncle next door as Luke grew up; he was more of a background presence that appears to have kept his ear to the ground in case something showed up that might pose a threat to Luke. Well that's not exactly a 24/7/365 type of gig. Or certainly not a stationary one; it could easily involve him needing to leave the planet to explore the nature of a threat.

I have a feeling that the characters around Han Solo in the spinoff will be more interesting than Han himself. As I've said in the thread, it's really "interesting" that Ron Howard has posted pics on Twitter of everyone in the cast except Alden Ehrenreich.

They've hired an excellent director for the film and it's supposed to be released in 2020. As we heard in Rogue One, Obi Wan is still in contact with people in the Galactic Senate and Rebellion, which leads me to believe that there's no way he just sat in his hut for 20 years, waiting to train Luke.

There is SO MUCH territory to mine there, including another encounter with Vader.

Please, no.

"When I left you, I was but the learner."

"I sense something. A presence I've not felt since..."

They don't see each other between III and IV. Otherwise you're just shitting on canon.

It doesn't have to be a lightsaber fight. It could be an instance of Obi Wan doing undercover work for the Rebellion and Vader either arrives or is already at the location.

Those quotes don't necessarily need to be specifically about the battle on Mustafar.

I can't muster the cognitive dissonance needed to imply otherwise, quite honestly.

To me it would cheapen IV.

Well, that's on you.

I think it would be a great "Holy shit!" moment for Obi Wan to accidentally bump into (not literally, of course) Darth Vader while on a mission for the Rebellion.

Vader could sense Luke's presence on a transport ship in VI, but wouldn't be able to sense his old master hiding in the bushes?

I'm not sure to what you're referring, unless you think that Vader is referring to Luke and not Obi Wan before the scanning crew entered the Millennium Falcon.

But either way, that wasn't my point. It's not that Vader wouldn't be able to sense him, it's that Vader and Obi Wan don't necessarily need to have a confrontation if they're accidentally in the same location.

Also, I think some people take this notion of "canon" way too far. Clearly, the Jedi weren't "extinct", as Tarkin states in A New Hope, as Obi Wan and Yoda are still alive.

There's also been the introduction of Barash Vow, in which Jedi "deactivate" their powers, so there's no connection to the Force, making them invisible to other Force users. It's possible that Obi Wan took this vow, as did Luke, which is why Kylo Ren and Snoke have been unable to find him through the Force.

https://static0.srcdn.com/wp-content...h=441&fit=crop

"i am your father"

https://scontent.fmkc1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...8f&oe=5A993D4F