It was announced late last night that Colin Trevorrow, the director of Jurassic World and Safety Not Guaranteed, has left the director's chair of Star Wars: Episode IX.
The announcement was made via StarWars.com, which stated that "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."
Trevorrow's departure comes on the heels of the departure of Phil Lord and Chris Miller from the untitled Han Solo movie, who was then replaced by Ron Howard. On top of that, Tony Gilroy was drafted in the last stages of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to help direct scenes with credited director Gareth Edwards' supervision. As well as this, Josh Trank - director of the ill-fated Fantastic Four reboot - was subsequently hired and then fired to direct another Star Wars spinoff movie in its early development stages.
As of writing, no announcement has been made as to who'll replace Trevorrow, but the scuttlebutt is that The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson may be approached to continue on with Episode IX. Following the passing of Carrie Fisher, Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that the script for Episode IX was being completely rewritten from scratch, and that playwright Jack Thorne was being brought into bring a fresh perspective on the film.
Episode IX is - at the minute - still scheduled for May 24th, 2019 with production due to begin in January.
Via StarWars.com