Looper and Brick director Rian Johnson to write and direct next two Star Wars films

The director is best known for his work on 2012's sci-fi thriller 'Looper' starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Rian Johnson will be involved in the next two instalments of the 'Star Wars' franchise (Getty Images)

Rian Johnson will be writing and directing the next two instalments of the Star Wars series.

The director behind Looper and Brick will be helming Episodes VIII and IX of the rebooted sci-fi franchise, according to American entertainment news site Deadline.com.

The Wrap, however, has contradicted this, saying that Johnson will only write and direct the eighth film and will “write the treatment” for the ninth.

Yesterday he posted a short clip from the film ‘The Right Stuff’ on Twitter to his 71,000 followers, the scene features the telling line “Dear Lord, please don’t let me f**k up”.

Johnson has also directed several episodes of American hit television show Breaking Bad, including ‘Ozymandias’ and ‘Fifty-One’.

Filming on Episode VII is already underway at Pinewood Studios with JJ Abrams manning the first film in the trilogy, with an anticipated release in late 2015. Episode VII will feature the cast from the original films as well as new stars.

But the Star Wars franchise does not end there, it was recently announced that Godzilla's Gareth Edwards will be directing the Star Wars spin-off films.