Well, well, well. While the current main trilogy of Star Wars movies is due to come to a conclusion with 2019’s Episode IX, and the Star Wars Story films are continuing next year with Ron Howard’s Solo, now comes word on further cinematic outings to a galaxy far, far away.

Lucasfilm have moved to confirm that Rian Johnson is developing a whole new Star Wars trilogy; a trilogy that is supposedly separate to the standard Skywalker-centric saga. The current plan is to introduce a slew of new characters from a corner of the galaxy that has yet to be seen in Star Wars lore. At this stage, Johnson – who is the director of this year’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi – will be writing and directing the first of this trilogy, with Ram Bergman to produce.

On this news, Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy enthused, “We all loved working with Rian on The Last Jedi. He’s a creative force, and watching him craft The Last Jedi from start to finish was one of the great joys of my career. Rian will do amazing thing with the blank canvas of this new trilogy.”

In a joint statement, Johnson and Bergman added, “We had the time of our lives collaborating with Lucasfilm and Disney on The Last Jedi. Star Wars is the greatest modern mythology and we feel very lucky to have contributed to it. We can’t wait to continue with this new series of films.”

We were all expecting Disney and Lucasfilm to dip in to the Star Wars well way past Episode IX, and now we know a little about what they have planned for this beloved property. In addition to all of this, of course, there’s still a third to-be-confirmed A Star Wars Story picture to arrive following the Alden Ehrenreich-headlined Solo. Previous rumours had Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda or Boba Fett as the likely centrepiece of that third film, but we’ll have to wait and see on that front. What do know now, though, is that there’s still plenty of further Star Wars adventures once Episode IX brings this current trilogy to a close.

Up next for the series, Star Wars: The Last Jedi heads to cinemas from December 15th.