A new Star Wars trilogy will be created by Rian Johnson. Johnson, who wrote and directed Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, will write and direct the first film of the trilogy, and the film will be produced by longtime collaborator Ram Bergman. The films will be separate from the Skywalker saga and will explore new characters from an unexplored area of Star Wars lore. The new trilogy was announced by Lucasfilm on November 9, 2017, with no release date yet set.
After a positive experience making the 2017 Star Wars sequel trilogy film Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson pitched the idea of the trilogy, which would "go someplace new, meet some new folks, tell a new story."
On January 16, 2018, Johnson teased more details about his trilogy, indicating that he hasn't ruled out the possibility of including some familiar characters from the other films. On September 4, Johnson revealed that the trilogy's first film will be released once he finishes filming of his thriller film Knives Out, starring Daniel Craig. On February 13, 2019, Rian Johnson confirmed that his trilogy was still slated to happen, dispelling rumors that his trilogy had been cancelled. According to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, Johnson was collaborating with David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who were working on their own series of Star Wars films. In May 2019, the four met to "lock down" their plans for their films. However, on October 28, 2019, it was reported that Benioff and Weiss were no longer involved with the trilogy. The pair was originally scheduled to write and produce the first film to be released after The Rise of Skywalker.
In September 2018, Bob Iger said that there would be a "slowdown" on the release of Star Wars films, because he felt there had been "a little too much, too fast." (He reaffirmed this in April 2019: "We will take a pause, some time, and reset … There will be other Stars Wars movies, but there will be a bit of a hiatus.") On May 7, 2019, Disney released its 2020-2027 theatrical release schedule, which revealed that Star Wars films are scheduled to hit cinemas in 2023, 2025, and 2027. The trilogy had been indefinitely postponed while Johnson worked on the Knives Out films for Netflix, however Johnson confirmed that they are still in the works.