The director of the latest Star Wars film has said it is “about time” a woman or person of colour was brought in to direct a film in the franchise.

Rian Johnson, who has made his Star Wars directing debut with The Last Jedi, which opens in UK cinemas on Thursday, is the third white man to direct a film from the popular sci-fi series. Other directors of the franchise have been creator George Lucas and JJ Abrams, who directed Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015.

However, Johnson said “hell yes, it’s time” that the on-screen diversity the rebooted Star Wars series has prided itself on was also extended to people behind the camera.

“There are so many incredibly talented female directors, directors of colour out there, and so many that I would love to see play in this universe,” said Johnson. “So hell yes, please, I’d love it to happen.”

Abrams, it is understood, will return to direct the final film in this trilogy. Disney recently announced that Johnson would be writing and directing the first in a brand new Star Wars trilogy. The directors of the other two films in that new trilogy have yet to be announced.

The Last Jedi returns where The Force Awakens left off. Cast members John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac and Adam Driver return alongside the original trilogy characters of Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill, and Princess Leia, played by Carrie Fisher. The film begins as Rey, played by Ridley, starts her Jedi training with Skywalker, while the resistance continue to battle the First Order, led by Driver’s Kylo Ren and Andy Serkis’s Snoke.

While reviews of the the Last Jedi have been almost universally positive (the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw said it was a film of “teetering temptations, spectacular immolations, huge military engagements”) some have accused Johnson of pandering to Disney, who bought the franchise from Lucasfilm in 2012 and were responsible for its reboot.

Variety’s Peter Debruge accused Johnson of bending to pressure from Disney’s Kathleen Kennedy, the film’s producer, and fitting the film into the studio’s “unified corporate aesthetic”. Debruge said: “Johnson was either strong enough or weak enough to adapt to such pressures, and the result is the longest and least essential chapter in the series.”

It was an accusation that Johnson denied, saying he was “not sure what that means” when people spoke about the Disneyfication of Star Wars in The Last Jedi.

“I know that from the very start Lucasfilm and Kathy Kennedy and the folks at Disney, there was nothing imposed on this movie from anyone and I was not only allowed but encouraged to make the kind of Star Wars movie that I wanted to make,” Johnson said.

The cast also spoke movingly about the loss of Fisher, who died in December last year during the filming of The Last Jedi.

Johnson said he would remember Fisher “first and foremost” as a writer, and recalled “hanging out before the shoot and just at her house and she was digging out books that she wanted to talk about”.

He added: “She was writing the Princess Diaries when we were doing the shoot and she was showing me all the old diaries she had kept and talking about words, and just hanging out with her. I feel really lucky that I got to have even a little bit of time to know her.”

Domhnall Gleeson, who plays General Hux, said that the film was a fitting tribute to Fisher’s talents. “For the people who knew Carrie she’ll live forever anyway because she was just amazingly big-hearted and totally herself and as irreverent as anybody I’ve ever met – and wore it all very lightly,” he said. “And now we get to see her as Leia in this film for the last time and she’s really brilliant in it.”

Star Wars: The Last Jedi lineup (from left): Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Benicio Del Toro, Laura Dern, Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Kelly Marie Tran, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis and director Rian Johnson. Photograph: Ian West/PA

Johnson also refused to confirm or deny the rumour that Prince Harry and Prince William make secret cameos in the film disguised as Storm Troopers. However, the cast spoke about the Royals’ visit to the set, and Hamill said he had used it as an opportunity to attempt to settle an ongoing dispute between him and Fisher over whether his character Luke Skywalker could claim to be royalty.

“When they told us that Carrie and I were brother and sister, I said ‘well wait, if Luke is Princess Leia’s brother, doesn’t that make me royalty?’ and Carrie immediately said no. But when I met the Princes, I told them I really wanted their opinion on this – ‘my mother was Queen Amidala, my father was Lord Vader and my sister is Princess Leia, doesn’t that make me royalty?’.”

However, he said that William and Harry had not been able to settle the 40-year dispute. “Unfortunately it was a split decision because William said yes and Harry said ‘I need more information’,” Hamill said with a sigh.