Colin Trevorrow departs from ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’
When The Book of Henry released to intense critical derision and faired rather poorly at the box office, many pundits and fans questioned whether Colin Trevorrow, who also directed Jurassic World and Safety Not Guaranteed, was the right choice to helm the final installment of the brand new Star Wars trilogy. Well, today, announced through an official statement on StarWars.com, Colin Trevorrow and Lucasfilm have officially parted ways.
The statement reads:
“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.”
Directors have been a particular problem for Disney, Lucasfilm and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, or perhaps vice versa. While Gareth Edwards retained sole directing credits, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story underwent massive reshoots under the guide of director Tony Gilroy. Most recently, earlier this summer, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired from the Han Solo standalone film, starring Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover as Solo and Lando Calrissian respectively. That decision cited “creative differences,” as does this one, and soon after, Lucasfilm hired Ron Howard, who is currently directing the remainder of the shoot as well as the scheduled reshoots. Whether or not Lord and Miller will be credited as directors is currently a mystery.
Episode IX recently brought on Jack Thorne, writer of the upcoming Jacob Tremblay, Julia Robert and Owen Wilson film Wonder, to rework the script, which had started with Trevorrow and his writing partner Derek Connolly. Perhaps the shift there points to where the split lies between Trevorrow and Lucasfilm, but the exact reason is yet to be known, and likely never will be.
As the news broke, many critics and journalists jumped to Twitter to suggest names and one popped up repeatedly: Ava DuVernay.
I nominate @ava for Star Wars: Episode 9. #AvaFor9 Who's with me? pic.twitter.com/b2mstScjUw
— Roth Cornet (@RothCornet) September 5, 2017
.@Ava for #StarWars Episode IX, thank you.
— michelle buchman (@michelledeidre) September 5, 2017
Ava DuVernay. Ryan Coogler. Patty Jenkins. Barry Jenkins. Give someone who isn’t a white man a shot at @starwars. https://t.co/0atLWv7E3X
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) September 5, 2017
I have two words for you: Ava Duvernay. https://t.co/6qzhvz5NZr
— K.M. McFarland (@km_mcfarland) September 5, 2017
DuVernay’s upcoming film is A Wrinkle in Time, a Disney-produced, $100 million+ budgeted blockbuster, so the connections seem to be there. In addition, in an interview with Nerdist, JJ Abrams touted her as a good fit for the universe while promoting The Force Awakens.
DuVernay was also rumored for Black Panther, of Disney’s other massive sub-studio Marvel. The reported reasons for DuVernay not working on that film were creative differences, so, with Kathleen Kennedy and the other executives/producers at Lucasfilm and Disney seemingly holding strict creative control, the fit might not be so snug.
Star Wars: Episode IX, yet to be titled, is set to release on May 24, 2019, which means that a director must be brought on soon to comfortably stay on schedule. Ron Howard boarded the Han Solo film, which is set to release on May 25, 2018, within days of the announcement of Lord and Miller’s firing, so Lucasfilm might already have another director lined up. The world will get eighth episode Star Wars: The Last Jedi on December 15 of this year.
Featured image via Red Carpet Report and Mingle Media TV.