Colin Trevorrow Out as Director of STAR WARS EPISODE IX

In a short, and vague, statement released by Lucasfilm, director Colin Trevorrow is out as director of STAR WARS EPISODE IX.

"Lucasfilm and Colin Trevorrow have mutually chosen to part ways on Star Wars: Episode IX. Colin has been a wonderful collaborator throughout the development process but we have all come to the conclusion that our visions for the project differ. We wish Colin the best and will be sharing more information about the film soon."

This news comes just over a month after Lucasfilm brought on a new writer to polish the Episode IX script to change major plot points due to the untimely passing of actress Carrie Fisher. General Leia was supposed to have a larger role in the final episode of the Sequel Trilogy, and now the studio will have to pursue a new director on top of the re-writes.

The Hollywood Reporter states the following about the departure from Trevorrow:

"Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that script issues have continued to be an issue during Episode IX’s development, with Trevorrow having had repeated stabs at multiple drafts. Sources say that the working relationship between Trevorrow and Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy became unmanageable. Kennedy, who had already been through one director firing/replacement on the Han Solo spin-off, was not eager for a sequel and tried to avoid this decision."

THR also posits that Lucasfilm is now looking for more dependable and serviceable director who can fall in line with their vision and tone of the Star Wars movies and cinematic universe. This is allegeldy why young, dynamic directors such as Josh Trank, Phil Lord / Chris Miller were fired or, as with Gareth Edwards, supplemented in post-production. The only remaining is STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI director Rian Johnson, who Lucafilm is said to adore and the feeling is mutual.

Entertainment Weekly adds the following info to this story:

"While the nature of the disagreement with Lucasfilm isn’t clear, there have been rumblings of discontent for several months. During that time, Trevorrow also suffered withering reviews for his passion project, The Book of Henry, which was a critical and commercial calamity."

STAR WARS EPISODE IX is set to begin production in early 2018 so there is plenty of time to find another director and now is definitely not the time to panic. Maybe, just maybe, Johnson will take the helm since the basic story of Episode IX was a treatment by Johnson himself. Although this is just some speculation on our part, and if we are guessing we will throw STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS director J.J. Abrams' name into the mix as well.

STAR WARS EPISODE IX releases on May 24, 2019.

Related Post:

STAR WARS EPISODE IX Brings on a New Writer For Script Work Before Heading into Filming