Even After Everything, Rian Johnson Still Loves Star Wars

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is about how to let go of Star Wars. Not only did it infamously give us Luke Skywalker as a bitter old recluse and reject the idea that Rey mattered because of her bloodline, but it also insisted that the series was all about change. The Last Jedi makes that point most clearly when the spectral Yoda visits Luke and sets fire to the sacred Jedi texts. When Luke protests, insisting that he needs them to train Rey, Yoda responds with his typical, grammatically-unique wisdom. “We are what they grow beyond,” Yoda tells his fellow Jedi; “That is the true burden of every master.”

If there’s truth to Yoda’s statement, then The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson may not yet be a master, because he’s not ready to fully leave Star Wars behind. While promoting Wake Up Dead Man, the latest mystery movie starring Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, Johnson refused to close the door on returning to the galaxy far, far away.

“That cog will be turning the rest of my life. I love Star Wars,” Johnson told Empire Magazine. “And if some day it makes sense to come back to it, for both of us, it would be the most wonderful thing in the world.”

On one hand, Johnson’s comments come as a surprise, given the divisive reception to The Last Jedi. For those who somehow avoided the internet for the past decade, a contingent of fans charged Johnson with insulting the franchise because Luke Skywalker wasn’t a perfect super warrior and because Leia flew through space, despite also giving the franchise some of its best visuals and taking the characters in surprising directions. Even the trainwreck that was The Rise of Skywalker, which reversed a lot of Johnson’s ideas but did so in the most narratively incoherent way possible, hasn’t completely dulled the criticisms.

On the other, Johnson and Star Wars boss Kathleen Kennedy have never stopped talking about a potential trilogy from the director, should the opportunity arise. As Johnson’s recent comments indicate, all parties seem interested, but the opportunity just hasn’t presented itself.

Johnson certainly hasn’t been wasting his time waiting for a call from Star Wars. In addition to his Knives Out movies, Johnson created Poker Face, a mystery-of-the-week show starring Natasha Lyonne as a slovenly sleuth in the vein of Columbo. Furthermore, Johnson plans to return to sci-fi next, even if it isn’t in the world of Star Wars.

“The most exciting thing right now is this idea I have in my head for the next thing I’m gonna make, and I think ultimately, that’s all you can do, is just kind of follow your nose,” he told Empire. “If I had to define it genre-wise, I’d say it harkens back to the ’70s paranoid thrillers. It’s got a light sci-fi element to it.”

For those who loved The Last Jedi, the idea of a new Johnson sci-fi movie is exciting, if disappointing that he’s not doing Star Wars again yet. And for those who hated The Last Jedi and fear Johnson learned nothing from the debacle, well, they might remember Yoda’s wise words to Luke in that hated film: “The greatest teacher, failure is.”

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery arrives in theaters on November 26 and streams on Netflix on December 12, 2025.