As news continues to emerge about some of Hollywood’s finest young talent taking over the ‘Star Wars’ spinoffs, J.J. Abrams is hard at work with ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’. However, it looks as if he will follow the precedent set by George Lucas with the original trilogy and pass the franchise on to someone else for ‘Episodes VIII and IX.’
According to Deadline, Lucasfilm is currently penning a deal for director Rian Johnson to complete the new trilogy set in a galaxy far, far away. After debuting with ‘Brick’ in 2005, followed by ‘The Brothers Bloom’ in 2008, the filmmaker made a splash with his sci-fi time travel movie ‘Looper’, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis. Since then, he’s directed some of the best episodes of AMC’s acclaimed drama ‘Breaking Bad’, but now it looks like he’s moving up in the world of Hollywood and joining names like Josh Trank and Gareth Edwards to shape the future of Disney’s newest acquisition.
At the time of this writing, no official word has surfaced to confirm this report. Although, if this does turn out to be true, I could see an announcement coming shortly and would include something about Abrams stepping back into an executive producer role so that he may continue to drive the creative direction of ‘Star Wars’ beyond his time in the director’s chair. Also, it would mean that Johnson would have to get to work quickly as Edwards’ film has been rumored to be next up to shoot at Pinewood Studios for a 2016 release. After that, Johnson would need to be ready to go in order to keep with Disney’s rumored schedule of one new ‘Star Wars’ film a year.
In terms of ability, I feel like Johnson has what it takes to handle ‘Star Wars’. Sure, it’s a huge jump from the movies that he’s made in the past, but after ‘Looper’, I could see him definitely being up to the challenge because of his distinctive sci-fi voice. But what do you think? Are you in favor of Rian Johnson directing ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ and ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’? Let us know in the comments below.
