Well, those thousands of Facebook users who claim to have soured Last Jedi's RottenTomatoes score, planned to do the same for Black Panther before Facebook deactivated their group page, and will probably back up again in their quest to protest any and all Disney-run franchises aren't gonna like this: Disney is making another Star Wars trilogy.
No, not the Rey-Kylo Ren one we're currently in the home stretch of after Last Jedi.
No, not that Rian Johnson one we know nothing about.
No, not the planned trilogy of gap-filling standalone prequels that started with Rogue One and Solo and might yet include an Obi-Wan or Boba Fett movie (or might simply end with Solo).
No, now we're talking about an entirely different trilogy to be written by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
That's right, people. All Star Wars, all the time! Disney has a Star Wars theme park attraction to open, release slots and theater seats to fill, quarterly profits to goose, toy manufacturers to please, and an entire generation of filmmakers who only got into the business because of the way George Lucas inspired them back in the 70s. So, if J.J. Abrams, Rian Johnson, and the Game of Thrones dudes want in on adding their own piece to the larger Star Wars story why would Disney ever so no to that?
However, for all of those less nerdy people who have lost track of all of this here's a quick guide to Disney's now-multiple Star Wars franchises:
Force Awakens-Last Jedi-Episode 9 
These are the ones that continue the Skywalker saga of George Lucas's movies. Force Awakens and Last Jedi, combined, have grossed nearly $4 billion. So, chances are you're already familiar with these movies. J.J. Abrams is directing the final installment. Let's move on.
Rian Johnson's trilogy 
Here's the truth, at least the truth as Johnson has told it in multiple interviews now: he doesn't fully know what his trilogy is going to be about.
Let's back up.
Before Last Jedi even came out, LucasFilm announced it was continuing its partnership with Johnson on a new, non-Skywalker-connected trilogy of Star Wars movies. Cheekily, Johnson joked on Twitter that now he really hoped people liked Last Jedi. He needn't have worried, though. His film is as bold a piece of blockbuster filmmaking as you'll ever see (well, at least outside of Blade Runner: 2049). Surely, the world will forgive the film's minor flaws and...
Huh. Well, guess it's a good thing he got that deal with LucasFilms in writing before all of, um, that.
[Check out FilmMusicCentral more balanced breakdown of the good, bad, and ugly of Last Jedi.]
In Johnson's telling, he had such a good time working with LucasFilms on Last Jedi that some time near the end of production they mutually agreed to keep working together for many years to come on the first-ever Star Wars trilogy to have nothing to do with the Skywalkers. Thus, the genesis here wasn't a killer pitch for a new story but instead a "let's just keep this going and figure out the story stuff as we go."
He's been cagey about the exact details of the films, partially due to standard studio secrecy, partially because it sounds like they're genuinely still hammering out all the details. The plan, as originally announced, is for him to map out all the movies, write and direct the first one, and then possibly transition into a producing role while handing off directing duties on the next two to other directors.
That may or may not still be the case, but one thing we do know for sure: His trilogy will NOT be an adaptation of Knights of the Old Republic.
The Standalone Spin-OffsDisney spent a lot to buy LucasFilms. A LOT. As in, that's money that could have helped rebuild at least a small part of Puerto Rico (not that Puerto Rico had been destroyed by a hurricane at the time of the Disney-LucasFilms sale). And not everyone saw the fiscal wisdom in Bob Iger taking such a massive swing on George Lucas's devalued old toys. So, in a bid to recoup costs and prove naysayers wrong Iger and LucasFilms Head Kathleen Kennedy laid a strategy of releasing one new Star Wars movie a year, with standalone prequels filling the gaps between new trilogy installments. There were initially supposed to be three of these standalone movies: Rogue One, Solo, and a Boba Fett movie.
But then Josh Trank turned his last name into a verb and tranked so hard on Fantastic Four that he was fired from Boba Fett. The project seemed to die on the vine after that. At this point, there are no concrete plans for any further standalone entries beyond Solo, which itself underwent considerable production difficulties. Ditto for Rogue One. Really, LucasFilm has been having a hard time with these things.
The Trilogy from the Game of Thrones GuysWe...know next to nothing about these. So, here are the quotes from the press release:
"David and Dan are some of the best storytellers working today," said Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy in a statement. "Their command of complex characters, depth of story and richness of mythology will break new ground and boldly push Star Wars in ways I find incredibly exciting."
"In the summer of 1977 we traveled to a galaxy far, far away, and we've been dreaming of it ever since," Benioff and Weiss said in a joint statement. "We are honored by the opportunity, a little terrified by the responsibility, and so excited to get started as soon as the final season of Game of Thrones is complete."
Remeber, of course, that final season is due just next year. Too bad Emilia Clarke is already in Solo. If not, she could have traveled with Benioff and Weiss over to LucasFilms and become the new Rey.
The question at this point becomes whether or not we are building to a point where, as with Marvel Studios, Disney might start releasing more than one Star Wars movie per year. If so, how would that really work out considering that Marvel's movies are all set in the same universe and continuity whereas the Skywalker saga, Johnson trilogy, and GoT trilogy will exist in the same universe but not even necessarily in the same time period.
Granted, Episode 9 will be out before either Johnson or Benioff and Weiss have their first film ready (or even in production). So, the real overlap here will between Rian Johnson's trilogy and Benioff and Weiss's. It could work. I would haven't thought Rogue One dropping in-between Force Awakens and Last Jedi would have worked as well as it did, but audiences didn't seem too horribly phased by the detour from the main saga's story.
