There's no franchise quite as big as Star Wars. George Lucas' epic space opera has been passed down across the generations, and has a special place in the hearts of filmmakers and moviegoers alike. Disney has helped reignite the property, and has been producing new, exciting Star Wars stories. But there have been a few missteps, mostly in regards to the firing of a few directors. While Phil Lord and Chris Miller exited Solo during filming, Colin Trevorrow also departed Episode IX a number of months ago. While Trevorrow has been purposefully quiet regarding this decision, he was recently asked if his flopped movie The Book of Henry might have affected Lucasfilm's decision to part ways. He responded candidly, saying:
You know, I don't know. I mean, I can't really speculate on it. I'll tell you that the reaction to Book of Henry was far more damaging than the actual movie. And I don't mean specifically at Lucasfilm. I mean, that was a very acidic situation. And, look, every director who has worked in Lucasfilm put their heart and soul into the job and they left it all on the field, and the bottom line here is that sometimes creative people can't find a shared path through the woods.
While Colin Trevorrow can't be 100 percent sure, it seems like the combination of The Book of Henry's failure and other creative difference ultimately resulted in his departure from the galaxy far, far away. Although considering what a massive success Jurassic World was, it's still surprising that Lucasfilm would want to go with another director.
Jurassic World may have been a record breaker, but The Book of Henry didn't fare so well. Despite a strong cast, Colin Trevorrow's directing and the film's process were panned by critics, and it failed to recoup its investment, let alone turn a profit. This may have scared Disney off, resulting in J.J. Abrams coming in to finish the trilogy he created.
In his same frank conversation with Uproxx, Colin Trevorrow talked about the other director that have been dropped from Star Wars projects, and how much the franchise truly means to him.
I know all of them. These are friends of mine and I was very close to them through all of their experiences. And Star Wars is a very personal thing to all of them, to a lot of people, and there are some people out there -- and I know folks might think we're crazy -- but people like me, who actually believe that there is an all-powerful force that binds the galaxy together. And when you're one of those people, you're dealing with your belief system, you're not just dealing with a movie. And so, yeah, that is a very personal loss
While it's sad to hear Colin Trevorrow's disappointment about Episode IX, he's got some very big things head of him. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom will arrive shortly, which he produced and wrote. Trevorrow will also be stepping back into the director's chair for the Jurassic World threequel, which should arrive in 2021.
You can catch Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in theaters on June 22, 2018, and Episode IX on December 20, 2019. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.
