The director of the third, and final, chapter in the latest Star Wars trilogy, Colin Trevorrow, has stepped away from the film, Lucasfilm confirmed last night.
As Trevorrow drops out of the project, Star Wars IX now finds itself as the second Disney Star Wars film to lose its director amid creative differences.
Trevorrow shot to cinematic fame with the successful reboot-blockbuster Jurassic World, but has since been met less warmth with the release of his The Book of Henry.
The 40-year old, American filmmaker was announced to be helming Star Wars IX back in 2015, after Episode VIII director, Rian Johnson, confirmed that he would not be involved.
In a newly released statement by Lucasfilm, Trevorrow’s exit from the film was yesterday announced, due to differences in ‘vision’ with the studio.
‘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.’
This marks the second significantly directorial loss for the Star Wars franchise, after duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller ducked out of the Han Solo spin-off for the same reasons.
Ron Howard is to direct that film, yet no replacement has currently been announced for Episode IX.
Star Wars is not the only of Disney’s major franchise acquisitions to have difficulty maintaining directors, with Edgar Wright having dropped out of Ant-Man three years ago. The statement then was a near-identikit: ‘differences in their vision of the film’.
Likewise, Wonder Woman-director Patty Jenkins left Thor: The Dark World, whilst Ava DuVernay passed on the opportunity to lead Black Panther upon realising that she ‘did not see eye-to-eye with the project.
‘Though not directing Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Trevorrow remains with Jurassic Park franchise as Executive Producer and writer, with Derek Conolley.
Star Wars: Episode IX is due for release on May 24, 2019. It will be preceded by Episode VIII this December.
The Film Blog 
Don’t forget Gareth Edwards effectively replaced by Ton Gilroy for re-shoots on Rogue One. It’s a cluster fuck as far as I’m concerned. I was excited to see what Lord and Miller were going to do too. Naturally we’re all breathing a sigh of relief with episode 9 but just because you make one bad movie doesn’t mean you can’t make a great movie and I believe in backing the vision of a director. I’m still pissed about Edgar Wright and Ant-Man even though that film wasn’t too bad.
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