Star Wars: Colin Trevorrow Reacts to Fan Reception of Scrapped Duel of the Fates Script

After reviving the Jurassic franchise, filmmaker Colin Trevorrow was announced to be heading for a galaxy far, far away, and was the original director for Star Wars: Episode IX. Eventually Lucasfilm and Trevorrow parted ways, leading to J.J. Abrams return and the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but a full script was written by Trevorrow and Derek Connolly….a script that eventually leaked. Star Wars: Duel of the Fates, the fan response to the film exploded online, especially in the aftermath of The Rise of Skywalker being such a disappointment to many audience members. Trevorrow was asked in a recent interview how he felt about that fan response, which he called encouraging.

“Honestly, if any director tells you that they don’t care what the audience thinks, or even people who watch movies and write about them for a living, then I’m not sure if they’re being fully honest with themselves,” Trevorrow told The Hollywood Reporter. “I do make these movies for audiences, but I also make them for people who think about film all the time and watch movies the way that I do. So yeah, absolutely. Any time you do something that’s received well, it’s going to encourage you and hopefully assure you that not only was there a reason why you started doing this in the first place, but your imposter syndrome is only partially real and you’re not a complete fraud. (Laughs.) And I think we all have those moments.”

Not only did Trevorrow’s entire script leak onto the internet, but pieces of concept art showing What-might-have-been also appeared online. Among the images that began to be circulated included: 

• An execution scene on Coruscant featuring Captain Phasma using a lightsaber guillotine
• A still living Luke Skywalker training Rey
• Kylo Ren battling a vision of Darth Vader in a cave
• Luke facing Kylo Ren, and catching the villain’s lightsaber with his mechanical hand 
• Hux committing ritual suicide (seppuku) with a lightsaber, when the First Order falls apart in the Battle of Coruscant.
• Leia recreating her iconic introduction in A New Hope by recording her rally cry to the galaxy in a holographic message recorded by BB-8.

You can read more about it here. The above quote wasn’t the only time Trevorrow was asked about the movie on his most recent press tour, telling UPROXX that he was “deeply satisfied” with the time he got to work with Lucasfilm.

“It was complicated. But, honestly, I mean, since we’re talking now in 2022, I can say honestly I’m very grateful to [Lucasfilm president] Kathy [Kennedy] for recognizing that she and I were never going to make a movie that we were both proud of together,” Trevorrow said. “And she’s been doing this for so long and she cares about me and I care about her and her family. And [producer] Frank [Marshall] and I are partners still. I’m a part of this group of incredible filmmakers, so it was a complicated moment, but now, having been able to do this and really feeling like this is what … I’m glad I did this. I’m deeply, deeply satisfied for having done this. I appreciate that she had the wisdom to see something that, honestly, I’m not sure I could’ve seen because I was so dialed in to the story I wanted to tell.”  

One piece of Trevorrow’s unmade movie did make it into the Star Wars canon…kind of, as a ship he designed for the movie was incorporated into the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge theme park.