Per The Hollywood Reporter, meetings will begin next week to decide what to do with Episodes VIII and IX after the death of Carrie Fisher. VIII has finished shooting already, but Leia supposedly has “a bigger part” in IX.
It seems likely these meetings are the same ones that Kathleen Kennedy mentioned in November to map out the franchise’s future.
I believe this is also the first time that it’s been reported that IX director Colin Trevorrow is writing the film’s script with frequent collaborator Derek Connolly.
Obviously, there’s still a lot of mourning going on, and Lucasfilm has some tough decisions that they have to make, but I myself hesitate to speculate. Lucasfilm, mourning or not, has little choice in the matter: We do.