Fired Star Wars Director Jokes About His Original 'Episode IX' Plans

Fans finally got their first look at the final chapter of the Star Wars saga, but the movie went [...]

By Joe Schmidt

Fans finally got their first look at the final chapter of the Star Wars saga, but the movie went through a lot of changes to get to this point. Before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker even began production, director Colin Trevorrow was fired from the project months before it was supposed to start filming.

While Trevorrow took a minor sabbatical from social media after that, he's since bounced back and is returning to direct the third film in the Jurassic World trilogy. And now he's having fun with what could have been his Star Wars film, joking with fans on Twitter about his plans for Episode IX.

Trevorrow was supposedly ousted from Star Wars: Episode IX due to creative differences, and when it comes to that lucrative property Lucasfilm does not play around. Remember, this is the company that fired Chris Miller and Phil Lord from Solo: A Star Wars Story in the middle of production.

Trevorrow has remained positive about his career despite this setback, telling Empire Magazine that he didn't want to dwell on the past.

"I don't want to talk too much about it because I don't want to affect the way that fans get to see these films," Trevorrow said. "When we were kids, these movies came to us from far away. They were a gift. And the more we talk about how they're made, the more it reveals that they're just movies. But they're not just movies, they're more than that. Beyond that, I got the opportunity to tell a story that is a celebration of everything I believe in, I got to tell it to George Lucas and I got to tell it to Luke Skywalker, and those are experiences I will cherish for the rest of my life."

Lucasfilm brought back J.J. Abrams, who kicked off the new trilogy with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, to replace Trevorrow and end the story. And the director admitted he had some trepidation about taking the job.

"I wasn't supposed to be there. I wasn't the guy, ya' know? I was working on some other things, and I had something else that I was assuming would be the next project, if we'd be so lucky," Abrams explained to Fast Company. "And then [Lucasfilm president] Kathy Kennedy called and said, 'Would you really, seriously, consider coming aboard?' And once that started, it all happened pretty quickly. The whole thing was a crazy leap of faith. And there was an actual moment when I nearly said, 'No, I'm not going to do this.' I was trepidatious to begin with, getting involved, because I love Star Wars so much and felt like it was ... It was almost, on a personal level, a dangerous thing to get too close to something that you care that much about."

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker premieres in theaters this December.

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