The circle, it seems, is now complete. Last week came the surprising news that Colin Trevorrow would no longer be directing Star Wars: Episode IX, after Lucasfilm announced that "our visions for the project differ". Speculation began almost immediately on who would step into the breach. Now we have our answer: J.J. Abrams.
Abrams, of course, kickstarted the modern Star Wars revival back in 2015 by directing The Force Awakens, and he will return to the franchise for this currently-untitled entry. As well as directing, Abrams will co-write the film with Chris Terrio, the man behind the scripts for Argo and Justice League. That suggests that Trevorrow's draft for the film has been scrapped, as has any elements that might have been added by previously-announced co-writer Jack Thorne. Neither Trevorrow nor Thorne are mentioned in Lucasfilm's press release, heavily implying an entirely clean slate for the project.
“With The Force Awakens, J.J. delivered everything we could have possibly hoped for," said Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy in a statement. "I am so excited that he is coming back to close out this trilogy.”
With filming due to start early next year, Lucasfilm have moved fast to keep the Episode IX ship afloat, and the hope will be that it can keep to the planned June 2019 release date – though given all this director musial chairs, it may want to lump for a Christmas release, like its VII and VIII brethren.
In the meantime, we still have Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi to look forward to, which is heading towards a 15 December 2017 release date.
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