It’s no secret that behind the scenes, the last few Lucasfilm movies have undergone some serious issues.Star Wars: The Force Awakensunderwent fairly extensive reshoots,Rogue One: A Star Wars Storyfound its entire third act reworked and reshot by a different director, andSolo: A Star Wars Storyhad its directors fired during production and replaced byRon Howard.
The drama streak continued withStar Wars: Episode IX, for whichJurassic WorldandSafety Not GuaranteedfilmmakerColin Trevorrowwas hired to write and direct. Trevorrow spent two years on the project, but in September 2017 he was unceremoniously removed from the film and replaced byJ.J. Abrams. This came in the wake ofPhil LordandChris Miller’s firing off ofSolo, and it very much appeared as though Lucasfilm presidentKathleen Kennedywas trying to avoid a similar situation owing to creative disagreements, where she got too deep into the film with the “wrong” fit behind the camera.
But what exactly happened? Why was Trevorrow fired fromEpisode 9? A new report in theWall Street Journalsheds a bit of light on the ordeal, noting that Trevorrow successfully pitched his idea forStar Wars 9to Kennedy, Disney presidentAlan Horn, and Disney CEOBob Igerwhen he was hired. But the WSJ says that once Trevorrow and his frequent collaboratorDerek Connollygot to work on the script, Kennedy was unhappy with the drafts he was submitting. Lucasfilm hiredHarry Potter and the Cursed ChildwriterJack Thorneto take a stab atEpisode IXin 2017, but both Kennedy and Trevorrow were unhappy with how that draft turned out as well.
After the Thorne draft, Trevorrow reportedly wanted to take another stab at the script himself, but instead Kennedy decided to fire Trevorrow and move on. Rumors have swirled that Trevorrow’s major point of disagreement with Kennedy was that he wanted to keep Luke Skywalker alive, thus alteringThe Last Jedi, but the source of these rumors is simply a fan on the internet theorizing. Indeed, that particular sticking point seems unlikely, and more often than not on projects like this it’s not one story point that leads to someone leaving the project—it’s a series of disagreements.
As we now know, J.J. Abrams was subsequently hired to direct and co-write the script forEpisode IXin the wake of Trevorrow’s exit,with Oscar-winningArgoandBatman v SupermanscribeChris Terrio, but Abrams was not the first filmmaker Kennedy approached.
The WSJ confirms what we kind of already knew: Lucasfilm considered rehiringThe Last JedifilmmakerRian Johnsonto directStar Wars 9, but the WSJ notes there were no serious discussions as Johnson likely wasn’t eager to start chasing a release date, and as we now know he’s working on his own newStar Warstrilogy on his own time.
Speaking with the WSJ, Abrams admitted he had already formulated ideas forEpisode IXbut never thought he’d get to see them through:
“I had a bunch of ideas from the beginning, back onVII, of where the story would go,” said Mr. Abrams. “I just never in my wildest dreams thought I would have a chance to execute them.”
We may not know exactly what Trevorrow had planned untilEpisode IXcomes out, if we ever know, but it does very much sound like Abrams and Terrio started from scratch when they came onboard. We’ll have a better idea of how much of Trevorrow’s work remains when the final writing credits are revealed, but for now it’s interesting to have a bit more information on why, exactly, this director swap ensued.
It should be pointed out that despite all this drama on theseStar Warsmovies, by most accounts they’ve turned out just fine—evenSolo. So while under normal circumstances this could be reason to worry, Lucasfilm has pretty much earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the final product, so it’s full speed ahead on J.J. Abrams’Star Wars: Episode IX.
