Regardless of what happens with the George Lucas fan petition, Rian Johnson and Colin Trevorrow have the directing gigs for Star Wars: Episode VIII and IX, respectively. Much like with the Marvel Cinematic Universe — which, like Lucasfilm, is also owned by Disney — these two gents are working together so that their films better expand the galaxy far, far away.

Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Trevorrow said:

"A story must evolve or perish, and Rian and I are working closely together to make sure our stories build off of each other and continue to evolve and take us to new places, and I think that’s what the fans expect and what they want."

With the likes of the Star Wars anthology stories, like Rogue One and the Han Solo prequel, it’s like Star Wars has its own shared universe of films. If you look at the MCU, it’s common and necessary in a lot of ways for this process to be honored, even if folks like Alan Taylor and Joss Whedon found problems with it. Whedon, who helmed the first two Avengers films, was on set for Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the like to make sure they all kept the big team-up events as their end goals. To that end, I wouldn’t be shocked if we start reading stories in the future, like, “Colin Trevorrow Reworked Part of Episode VIII” and vice versa with Johnson.

You also might recall that Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy confirmed Johnson “had a lot of conversations” with J.J. Abrams, who directed The Force Awakens, in addition to reading Episode VII’s script “very early” and coming to visit the film’s set. Abrams himself confirmed that he collaborated with Johnson on the ending of The Force Awakens, to make sure it did what it needed to do for his sequel. John Boyega, who will return for the sequels as reformed Stormtrooper Finn, teased a “much darker” tone for Episode VIII, which will begin filming towards the end of this month.

Now for the horrible, honest truth — we have to wait until 2017 to see Johnson’s Episode VIII and 2019 for Trevorrow’s Episode IX. In the meantime, watch Trevorrow’s full interview with ET below.

“It’s funny, I saw that, and it was on a day where I was at LucasFilm giving this big speech to everyone about how we want to channel the invention and just the raw creativity and the boldness that George brought to these films and not being afraid that we’re going to embarrass ourselves by doing something that might be crazy.

 

“When George Lucas made Star Wars, a lot of people thought it was crazy. When you try to pitch what that movie’s about – if you’ve never heard of Star Wars before, you say, ‘Here’s a character. His father’s part robot, but he can also do magic. And there’s a guy who can fly in a spaceship. He’s got a dog for a friend!’ – it sounds insane but it’s the greatest story ever told."