The Star Wars franchise was struck by yet another behind-the-scenes shakeup earlier this week when it was announced earlier this week that Colin Trevorrow will no longer be directing Star Wars: Episode IX. In its public statement, Lucasfilm simply attributed Trevorrow's departure to difference in visions for the project. However, a source who is closely familiar with the productions of Jurassic World and The Book of Henry, Trevorrow's previous movies, suggests that the director might have been fired because he was difficult to work with. Speaking about Trevorrow's time on Jurassic World, this person said the following:
During the making of Jurassic World, he focused a great deal of his creative energies on asserting his opinion. But because he had been personally hired by Spielberg, nobody could say, 'You're fired.' Once that film went through the roof and he chose to do Henry, [Trevorrow] was unbearable. He had an egotistical point of view--- and he was always asserting that.
Shortly after Lucasfilm announced Colin Trevorrow's exit from Star Wars: Episode IX, it was reported that he was let go to "script issues" and because his relationship with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy had become "unmanageable." Adding to these claims, the executive who spoke anonymously to Vulture said that once The Book of Henry's poor critical reception started rolling in, there was speculation that those reviews, combined with Trevorrow's brash personality, might lead to him finally getting the boot. As the source put it:
When the reviews for Book of Henry came out, there was immediately conjecture that Kathy was going to dump him because they weren't thrilled with working with him anyway. He's a difficult guy. He's really, really, really confident. Let's call it that.
A "veteran movie producer," who also spoke anonymously, added that because Kathleen Kennedy is the "gatekeeper" of the Star Wars franchise, if there's anyone who doesn't want to play by the rules she's established for these movies, they're "out." The Star Wars: Episode IX drama comes two months after Phil Lord and Chris Miller left the Han Solo movie after completing approximately 75% of the main shoot. Ron Howard was hired to replace the duo on the Star Wars Anthology spinoff, but as it stands now, Lucasfilm has not yet announced who will replace Colin Trevorrow as Star Wars: Episode IX's director.
The final installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy is expected to begin rolling cameras early next year, so ideally Lucasfilm will announce Colin Trevorrow's successor soon and push ahead to stay on schedule. As for the previously mentioned script issues that plagued Episode IX while Trevorrow was around, Wonder's Jack Thorne was recently hired to pen the latest draft of the upcoming space opera.
Star Wars: Episode IX is still scheduled to be released in theaters on May 24, 2019.
