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Rian Johnson's Star Wars movies will feature new characters

Director reminds fans that his film trilogy will go beyond the Skywalker clan.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
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Don't expect to see these familiar faces in Rian Johnson's trilogy.

Lucasfilm Ltd.

Don't expect the same-old, same-old in the upcoming Star Wars trilogy from Last Jedi director Rian Johnson. Not much has been revealed about the movies, but Johnson told The Observer he's excited about moving past the familiar characters that are so associated with the Star Wars saga.

"I think that the fun and challenging part of it is to dive in, figure out what's exciting and then figure out what it's going to be," Johnson said. "We're doing something that steps beyond the legacy characters. What does that look like? To me, the blue sky element of it is what was most striking about it."

The Observer article says the trilogy will be "disconnected" from the Skywalker saga, which still has one movie of its own to come, December's Star Wars Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker.

This isn't exactly new news, as from its 2017 announcement, the trilogy was known to be branching out. But Johnson's reminder that a fresh look is coming feels pertinent as fans prepare to say goodbye to the universe of Luke, Leia and R2-D2.

"I know the way that I'm coming at it and what's fun about it for everyone in Lucasfilm is figuring out, 'what's the next step?'" Johnson said. "It really makes you think and figure out what the essence of Star Wars is for me and what that will look like moving forward."

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