Rian Johnson‘s next movie is this year’s ensemble mystery Knives Out, but after that, he’ll be returning to a galaxy far, far away for his new Star Wars trilogy. Much of Johnson’s trilogy remains cloaked in secrecy. In fact, the only thing we know about it is that it will be set entirely out of the regular Star Wars mythology. No Skywalkers, no Death Stars, no Sy Snootles. Johnson offered up the tiniest bit of insight into his new Star Wars trilogy, and it sounds as if he’s looking to the original trilogy for inspiration.

Despite what some folks on the internet might want you to think, Rian Johnson is still making his new Star Wars trilogy. He’s said as much several times and just reiterated the fact again in a new interview with Observer. As you might guess, Johnson was cagey with specific details – he’s not going to come out and tell us what the plot of his trilogy is. But he did reveal how he’s approaching the films:

“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. 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. I know the way that I’m coming at it and what’s fun about it for everyone in George Lucas’ films is figuring out, ‘what’s the next step?’ 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.”

So what does this mean? How does one find the “essence of Star Wars“? To me, that sounds like Johnson is drawing on the original trilogy for inspiration. That’s not to say he’s going to be recreating elements from the original trilogy, but rather that he’s hoping to create something that seems as fresh and exciting as the first three Star Wars films seemed when they were released in 1977, 1980, and 1983, respectively. A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi were creating entirely fresh new worlds and characters, and it sounds like Johnson wants to do the same.

I loved Johnson’s The Last Jedi – it’s my favorite Star Wars movie. So I’m pretty damn excited to see what he comes up with for his new trilogy. In the meantime, Johnson’s Knives Out arrives in theaters November 27, 2019.

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