Director Rian Johnson recently took to X, formerly Twitter, to directly challenge claims made by former Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy regarding his unfulfilled "Star Wars" trilogy. Kennedy had suggested in an exit interview with Deadline that Johnson was "spooked by the online negativity" following his direction of 2017's "The Last Jedi" and consequently never returned to the franchise for further projects. Johnson unequivocally denied this assertion, responding with a succinct "Lol zero spooked, sorry." to a post aggregating Kennedy's comments.

Kathleen Kennedy, in her explanation for why Johnson's planned "Star Wars" trilogy never materialized, offered a dual perspective. While she did acknowledge that his commitment to the burgeoning "Knives Out" franchise consumed "a huge amount of his time," she also strongly implied that the intense fan backlash directed at "The Last Jedi" played a significant role in his decision to step away. Kennedy stated, "I do believe he got spooked by the online negativity. I think Rian made one of the best ‘Star Wars’ movies. He’s a brilliant filmmaker and he got spooked. This is the rough part. When people come into this space, I have every filmmaker and actors say to me, ‘What’s going to happen?’ They’re a little scared.”

Johnson, however, provided a different account of events during an interview with Rolling Stone last summer. He clarified that the proposed "Star Wars" trilogy never progressed deeply into development, describing it as "all very conceptual." According to Johnson, any real progress on the "Star Wars" project was preempted by the success and subsequent demands of "Knives Out." He emphasized that nothing substantial ever "really happened with it" beyond initial discussions.

Elaborating on his departure, Johnson explained that after the conceptual discussions with Lucasfilm, "’Knives Out’ happened" which led him "off to the races, busy making murder mysteries." He confirmed that he had a positive working relationship with Kathleen Kennedy, regularly kicking ideas around with her. Johnson expressed that while he remains open to future opportunities within the "Star Wars" universe, stating he "would be thrilled" to do so, he is currently content focusing on his own projects. His primary reason for not continuing with "Star Wars" was the organic development of his successful detective film series, not fear of fan reaction.