Star Wars 10 is happening, and it will launch a whole new trilogy. For director Rian Johnson, Star Wars: The Last Jedi was just the beginning of his journey in a galaxy far, far away. Lucasfilm announced today that Johnson will create a brand-new Star Wars trilogy, the first of which he is also set to write and direct, with longtime collaborator Ram Bergman onboard to produce.

As writer-director of The Last Jedi, Johnson conceived and realized a powerful film of which Lucasfilm and Disney are immensely proud. In shepherding this new trilogy, which is separate from the episodic Skywalker saga, Johnson will introduce new characters from a corner of the galaxy that Star Wars lore has never before explored. Said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm.

"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 things with the blank canvas of this new trilogy."

Johnson and Bergman said in a joint statement.

"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."

Johnson's upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi arrives in U.S. theaters on Dec. 15, 2017. No release dates have been set for the new films, and no porgs were available for comment. This matches up with previous reports that Lucasfilm was moving forward with a new set of films set in the Star Wars universe. Kathleen Kennedy previously stated that her team was in the process of planning out the next decade of new Star Wars movies, and now we know what that is going to look like. She explains.

"We're sitting down now, we're talking about the next 10 years of Star Wars stories, and we're looking at, narratively, where that might go. Future stories beyond Episode IX with these new characters: Rey, Poe, Finn, BB-8, but we're also looking at working with people that are interested in coming into the Star Wars world and taking us places we haven't been yet. That's exciting, too, because it's a vast galaxy far, far away."

What is interesting here is that Kennedy hints future Star Wars movies will revolve around characters Poe, Finn, Rey and BB-8. That could still be the case, as none of them have ever been confirmed to be Skywalkers. The new trilogy could easily follow one of these as a main character as they travel to an unseen part of the galaxy. It's unlikely that Lucasfilm would launch a new Star Wars movie without a few established characters showing up. Lucasfilm revealed this information earlier today on their official StarWars.com website.