Rian Johnson is developing a new ‘Star Wars’ trilogy

Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson is going to be sticking around for a while. Disney just announced that Johnson is going to be developing a new trilogy of films for the Star Wars universe. He will be writing and directing the first installment and will be working with longtime producer Ram Bergman. But these will feature entirely new set of characters as Episode IX will close out the Skywalker saga.

Johnson couldn’t contain his excitement over the news. He even sent out a tweet joking, “Obviously I hope you like The Last Jedi. But man now I REALLY hope you like The Last Jedi.” In a statement, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy says, "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."

Source: GameSpot

Here’s a new look at ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’

With December 15^th fast approaching, we’re seeing more and more of what to expect from the latest Star Wars film. And there’s a lot happening in The Last Jedi. We see Rey training on Ahch-To with Luke Skywalker and him saying she’s only seen power like hers once (we assume he means Kylo Ren) and that it didn’t scare him enough then but it does now. We get a glimpse of General Organa and Kylo seemingly hesitating to blast his mother’s Resistance ship while talking about having to kill his past. Rey also looks like she’s talking to Kylo Ren asking about her “place in all this.” It’s a lot to take in but we’re excited. The movie also gets a new poster which you can see under the cut.

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New ‘Star Wars’ audiobook enlists Hollywood stars like Jon Hamm

Banking on the star power or just the really sultry voice of Hollywood’s elite, an upcoming audiobook about Star Wars: Episode IV has enlisted help from some big stars. Entitled From a Certain Point of View, this Del Rey Books audiobooks will feature the voices of Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, Neil Patrick Harris, and Star Wars Battlefront 2’s Janina Gavankar, to name a few. There will be 40 stories with each tale told by a different author about a character from the movie. Not much is known about who will voice whom but Hamm is confirmed to be voicing Boba Fett and Harris will tell the tale of an Imperial officer who’s aboard the Death Star. Gavankar will voice a different Imperial soldier from the one she voices in Battlefront 2.

The other voice actors include Now on the writing side, the authors contributing to this book include. All the authors have forgone payment for their stories and will have their proceeds go to First Book, a nonprofit that gives new books, learning materials, and other necessary tools needed by educators and organizations that serve children in need. According to Penguin Random House, the publisher has donated US$100,000 to First Book, while Lucasfilm gave 100,000 books to the charity that’s estimated to be worth US$1 million. From a Certain Point of View will be available for purchase starting October 3^rd.

Source: Star Wars

J. J. Abrams replaces Colin Trevorrow as ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’ director

After Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow gets fired as director for the upcoming Star Wars: Episode IX, it looks like Lucasfilm and Disney are going back to a tried-and-tested director. The production company names J.J. Abrams as Trevorrow’s replacement. Abrams directed Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which can be considered the reboot or continuation of the nine-part Star Wars saga. As a consequence of the directorial change, Lucasfilm also announced that this last movie of this installment is getting pushed back to December 20, 2019 instead of its May 2019 release.

Before Trevorrow lost the gig, we know Lucasfilm brought on Jack Thorne to re-write the script. Rumour has it the film needed to be re-written partly because of Carrie Fisher’s death. As General Leia in the new set of films, she was set to play a significant role in Episode IX and while we may see some pre-shot footage, her role in the film will obviously have to be lessened.

Source: Ars Technica