Rian Johnson will no longer be involved with Star Wars: Episode IX

Rian Johnson is not involved with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker according to J.J. Abrams, which is hardly a surprise.

Ever since the release of Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, there has been a sort of overhaul, if you will, happening at Lucasfilm. There have been rumors that J.J. Abrams, who helmed the first entry in the sequel trilogy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, opened a continuity that had been undone. And the keys to the franchise were previously held by Last Jedi’s Rian Johnson.

Reported via MTV News, they gave the scoop that Johnson is confirmed not to be in any way involved with Star Wars: Episode IX, which will be titled The Rise of Skywalker. Before getting into the supposedly in-development trilogy post-Episode IX with Kathleen Kennedy, let’s first point out that there had been rumblings that Johnson, who written, co-produced and directed The Last Jedi, more or less tossed out the initial outline for the movie planned by J.J. Abrams out the window. Daisy Ridley, as per this report by Express, allegedly was under the impression that there was a grand plan, a plan so long as both filmmakers was free to seed their own distinct voices in their respective films.

Well, The Last Jedi was released and the rest, all things considered, is history. When Johnson was asked by MTV if he knew anything that was going on with Episode IX, he was quite candid. He replied.

"“No. I’ve had a couple conversations with him, but I’ve actually really enjoyed kind of sitting back waiting to get my popcorn opening day and see how the thing turns out. I cannot wait.”"

When MTV asked if it would bother him if Abrams did a retcon on Rey’s lineage he said:

"“He can do… yeah… Like I said man, I want to let go all of my expectations, I want to sit back. I want to be entertained. I want to be surprised. I want to be thrilled. I want him to do stuff that I wasn’t expecting him to do and just go along for the ride. For me, that’s why I go to the movies, you know.”"

Paraphrasing word-for-word, this quote could be interpreted as, “I took a crack at it first time round. Didn’t work. I paid my dues. J.J. is doing a retcon. Good for him. I’ll be the judge of that. Lemme get my popcorn ready. We shall see.”