With just 100 days to the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, news is breaking that the director of the Star Wars saga installment that will be following that has left the project.
Lucasfilm announced that Jurassic World helmer Colin Trevorrow will no longer be directing the film.
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.
Trevorrow’s departure might not come as a complete surprise. Recently, Lucasfilm had brought in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child playwright Jack Thorne to do a substantial rewrite of the screenplay Trevorrow and his Safety Not Guaranteed co-screenwriter Derek Connolly crafted. At the time, it was thought that the rewrites could be at least in part to make adjustments to the story in the wake of Star Wars icon Carrie Fisher’s passing last year.
The Hollywood Reporter sites sources who state that tensions were high and getting worse between Trevorrow and the Lucasfilm over the creative direction of the film –
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 spinoff movie, was not eager for a sequel and tried to avoid this decision.
This past summer Trevorrow’s film The Book Of Henry was met with poor reviews, which led to speculation over his future on Episode IX. The speculation was not unfounded as Lucasfilm parted ways with Josh Trank – who was working on an undisclosed Star Wars spinoff film rumored to have centered on bounty hunter Boba Fett – after his Fantastic Four film tanked at the box office in 2015.
With a May 2019 release on the calendar, Lucasfilm will need to find a replacement director fairly quickly in order to make that date.
