J.J. Abrams the director of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS in 2015 will complete the sequel trilogy as writer and director of STAR WARS: EPISODE IX. Abrams will co-write the film with Chris Terrio.
Abrams was sought out in somewhat controversial circumstances. Colin Trevorrow had the job until he was fired for reasons which have not been made public. Trevorrow who wowed the industry with his work on the highly successful JURASSIC WORLD (2015), suffered a setback with the failure of the Naomi Watts film THE BOOK OF HENRY (2017). After Trevorrow’s departure, Rian Johnson, the director of STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI was considered, as we reported earlier this week, but he declined the offer.
Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy is said to have clashed with Trevorrow. As pointed out by David Sims in The Atlantic, Kennedy is one of the new breed of franchise supremo like John Lasseter at Disney/Pixar, Warner’s Chief Content Officer Toby Emmerich or Kevin Feige at Marvel Studios; the bucks stops with them on multi-million dollar franchises and their creative direction.
Abrams is a highly successful director and producer who knows and loves Star Wars and has also worked in the Star Trek and Mission Impossible franchises. His choice to take the reins of Star Wars Episode IX puts the movie into safe and experienced hands. As Kennedy commented,“With The Force Awakens, J.J. delivered everything we could have possibly hoped for, and I am so excited that he is coming back to close out this trilogy.”
