Surprising news in the world of Star Wars with the announcement that Colin Trevorrow has departed from Star Wars: Episode IX. Having been attached to the project for quite some time, and well into pre-production his departure comes as a bit of a shock.
Lucasfilm released a statement regarding his departure as follows:
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.
His departure from the project comes as a surprise given there have been no previous reports or speculation about any difficulties in the Episode IX camp, Trevorrow’s collaboration has even extended as far as to Rian Johnson’s work on The Last Jedi, with Johnson filming a scene requested by Trevorrow for inclusion in Episode IX.
Lucasfilm have referenced creative differences in their reasoning for parting ways, Trevorrow was obviously attached as a writer on the project, so presumably his script work wasn’t working for Lucasfilm and rather than persist with trying to reach an agreed position, they’ve decided to move in a different direction.
Trevorrow was the director behind Jurassic World in 2015, since then he has directed the one film The Book of Henry, which received a poor response from critics and movie audiences alike.
Production difficulties are no stranger to Star Wars films since the franchise took off again, with Rogue One undergoing significant changes late into production, not to mention the well reported struggles on the Han Solo film which resulted in the replacement of directors Lord and Miller. It’s difficult not to wonder if these problems left Lucasfilm a little short on patience, and in seeking to avoid further difficulties later into production they possibly took the view to make a change now in the hopes of a smoother production overall.
While there’s been no formal announcement it’s being reported that Rian Johnson is the most likely contender to pick up direction of Episode IX, he commented via his twitter account earlier in the year, that given the opportunity he would love to make another Star Wars film, that opportunity might be a lot sooner than he previously thought!
