With the world about to be introduced to his take on the Star Wars universe in less than a month with The Last Jedi, director Rian Johnson has spoken for the first time about Disney’s planned new trilogy of Star Wars films.

The studio confirmed earlier this month that, as well as a stand-alone TV series, Johnson would be helming three more Star Wars movies in the coming years, which would be “separate from the episodic Skywalker saga” and “will introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored.”

Now, the 43 year old director has spoken publicly for the first time about the proposition of directing the fourth official Star Wars trilogy. “I’m just in the very beginning of starting to come up with what the new trilogy is going to be,” he told a fan event in Mexico this week.

Rian JohnsonRian Johnson spoke about the planned fourth 'Star Wars' trilogy

The new triptych will follow on from George Lucas’ original vision for the Star Wars universe, consisting of the classic originals from 1977 to 1983, the prequel trilogy of 1999 to 2005, and the current seventh, eighth and ninth films that come after the first three. The eighth instalment, The Last Jedi, is set to be released in Britain on December 14th.

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”What makes me so excited about it, is the idea of doing a new story on the big canvas of three movies in this world. There’s just so much potential and I can’t wait to jump into it.”

Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, said earlier in November when the fourth trilogy was announced: “We all loved working with Rian on The Last Jedi. 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.”

As of yet, no predicted release dates have been chalked up for the planned trilogy, but the ninth official film is set for release in the summer of 2019.

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