In what would certainly have to rank as biggest bombshell to come out of Hollywood since the announcement that Disney was buying Lucasfilm, Deadline is reporting that Disney/Lucasfilm is making a deal with writer/director Rian Johnson (Looper, Brick, The Brothers Bloom) to both write and helm Star Wars: Episode VIII and Star Wars: Episode IX.  As wild as this story might appear, it has certainly been given some credence when Johnson posted a clip from The Right Stuff in which Scott Glenn (playing Astronaut Alan Shepard) says "Dear Lord, please don’t let me f___up," a very understandable quote to cite for someone who has been entrusted with the future of such a huge franchise.
 
What does this mean for J.J. Abrams?  Given Hollywood’s proclivity for maintaining the continuity of creators, it would appear to indicate that rebooting the Star Wars franchise has been fraught with enough problems that Abrams must have told the powers at Lucasfilm and Disney that he did not want to continue directing Star Wars movies after helming the first one.