Rian Johnson's New 'Star Wars' Trilogy Won't Draw Inspiration From 'Knights of the Republic'
"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" director Rian Johnson has yet to drop any major reveal about his new "Star Wars" trilogy, but he has already debunked early speculations that the next three films that he will helm under the franchise will be based on the hit video game "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic."
Last month, Lucasfilm revealed that after "Star Wars: Episode IX" rounds out the current trilogy in 2019, Johnson would write and direct a new trilogy. After revealing earlier this week that his trilogy would veer away from Luke Skywalker's multigenerational saga and would not be connected in any way to "Star Wars: Episode VII, VIII and IX," the filmmaker revealed in a more recent interview that his trilogy would not be set in the Old Republic.
Johnson said that while he is a fan of the video game, his new "Star Wars" trilogy would not be set in the Old Republic. "Oh, fans love 'Knights of the Old Republic.' I played that game when it first came out and it was like, god, I loved it. Yeah, that was a fantastic game. And I understand it, the instinct to automatically go to something that you know and love, that you've already seen... To me, what's really fun is the notion of what new stuff are we gonna see, what new stories can we tell," he said.
"Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" was released in 2003 and was set 4,000 years before the events in the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy. Because the game is one of the most popular "Star Wars" video games ever launched and is noted as one of the most influential works in the "Star Wars" expanded universe, many have thought that Johnson might draw inspiration from it in writing his new trilogy. Given his recent statement, however, it is clear that the next "Star Wars" trilogy will be something that's entirely new.
"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" hits theaters on Dec. 15.