Johnson said there was "never any outline or treatment or anything" for the remainder of the films, though he did note that the ideas he had were "all very conceptual" without further elaboration. Lucasfilm first announced the planned trilogy in November 2017, a month before The Last Jedi 's theatrical release.

The Star Wars sequel trilogy introduced a host of new characters to go alongside the returning legacy stars, and one of the most interesting was Supreme Leader Snoke. The mysterious leader of the First Order was well-developed in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, yet he was abruptly killed in the sequel.

Around the time that some fans were having a meltdown over Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson and Lucasfilm were planning to piss them off even further with a whole new trilogy helmed by Johnson.