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.

Rian Johnson has finally set the record straight on how much he and J.J. Abrams spoke in between "The Force Awakens" and "The Last Jedi"

While J.J. Abrams was seemingly thinking about mirroring a Darth Vader/Emperor Palpatine dynamic for Kylo Ren and Supreme Leader Snoke, Johnson felt it was more dramatic to do something fresh and different with the characters instead of just echoing what audiences have already seen.