Lucasfilm Announces Colin Trevorrow No Longer Directing Episode IX

Director of Jurassic World Colin Trevorrow has departed from the upcoming Star Wars: Episode IX, as announced by Lucasfilm this afternoon.

Lucasfilm and Disney released the statement, reading, “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.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the biggest concerns with the project were script issues, with screenwriter Jack Thorne being the latest to attempt to wrangle a draft of the film.

Trevorrow’s departure from the project is only the latest disturbance in the Force, but is also one of the least surprising. Jurassic World proved to be a massive success for Trevorrow, which was preceded by the low-budget romantic comedy Safety Not Guaranteed. The announcement that he was directing Episode IX was surprising, as he had to follow sci-fi savant J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens and Rian Johnson, who scored a huge hit with the time travel thriller Looper.

The director’s latest film, The Book of Henry, was a critical and financial disaster, sitting at 22% on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes and only earning less than $5 million at the domestic box office.

The film’s poor performance caused many to doubt his abilities at tackling the third part of the latest Star Wars trilogy, but it wasn’t until the departure of Phil Lord and Chris Miller from the Han Solo spinoff that the possibility of his exit would be a possibility.

Trevorrow marks the third time a director or directing team parted ways with Lucasfilm, with the aforementioned Lord and Miller leaving the Han Solo project and Josh Trank, director of the most recent Fantastic 4, having left Lucasfilm and his plans for another spinoff behind.

The untitled Episode IX is still slated to hit theaters May 24, 2019.