‘Episode IX’ Just Became The Latest ‘Star Wars’ Film To Lose Its Director

Welp – another bump in the reasonably bumpy road that has been the production of the Disney-led Star Wars films. Looks like Colin Trevorrow is out as director of Episode IX.

LucasFilm announced in a brief statement today that they’ve parted ways with the Jurassic World director:

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.

No further info on what happened has been forthcoming, but you can be sure there will be. It’s believed that Trevorrow and his writing partner Derek Connolly wrote most of the recent script.

There’s been a lot of conjecture from fans about the very, very tight grip Disney keeps on its creative projects, but it looks like they’ve been particularly protective of Star Wars. As you might recall, directing partners Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were booted off the Han Solo film – which is scheduled for release next year – because their creative vision didn’t align with Disney’s.

Replacing them was Ron Howard, a studio guy who would be much more willing to play close to Disney’s vision of Han Solo.

It’s a growing tension, by the looks of it. Disney seems willing to hand the very, very precious mantle of Star Wars to some fresh and interesting directors, but aren’t willing to let them to stray too far from what they imagine the franchise to be. The real test for this will be The Last Jedi – given that director Rian Johnston has a very unique style.

Anyway. Stay tuned for goss.

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