Yahoo News Rian Johnson is not involved with Star Wars Episode 9
Depending on how you feel about Rian Johnson, this will either be good news or bad news, but the director of The Last Jedi has confirmed that he is absolutely "not involved" with Star Wars: Episode 9.
Last month, Lucasfilm confirmed that The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams would direct Episode 9 following original director Colin Trevorrow's departure, and in a recent interview Johnson said that he's not taking part in any of the planning for the sequel.
When asked by The Hollywood Reporter if there had been any discussions about the ninth chapter yet, Johnson was quick to rule himself out of it.
"JJ Abrams is doing a third movie," he said. "I'm not involved in it. They'll be writing their own story but continuing on with what we did."
Related: Why does Star Wars keep losing directors?
Of course, Abrams helped relaunch the Star Wars franchise by directing 2015's The Force Awakens, and Rian Johnson has previously revealed that he did ask the director to tweak the film's ending a little.
"The big [favour] was, I asked if R2 could come with Rey, and if BB-8 could stay behind with the Resistance," Johnson said earlier this year.
"Originally it was BB-8 who went with Rey, which makes sense for the story in a way. But I asked, 'Can you do me this solid and switch the droids?'"
For his part, Abrams recently opened up about what he has planned for the sequel, saying the film won't "revel" in the past.
"I feel like we need to approach this with the same excitement that we had when we were kids loving what these movies were and, at the same time, we have to take them places that they haven't gone, and that's sort of our responsibility," he said.
"We can't just revel in that, we have to go elsewhere."
Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits cinemas on December 16. Watch a trailer below:
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Twitter account and you're all set.
You Might Also Like
