Much like Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s departure from the Han Solo movie, many have been questioning what’s going on at Lucasfilm after another Star Wars project has seen the departure of its director.
The news that Colin Trevorrow, who is best-known for Jurassic World, had left Star Wars: Episode IX emerged last week after an announcement was made via StarWars.com. The film was (and reportedly still is) scheduled to commence production in January.
The whole thing has been very mysterious, even with the statement claiming that Trevorrow’s departure was “mutually chosen” and that “visions for the project differ[ed].”
Still according to Vulture, an inside source who is described as an ‘executive’ claims the director was booted by Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy for a perception of being "difficult", which he exhibited in his approach to both Jurassic World and the critical failure The Book of Henry, which was released earlier this year.
"During the making of Jurassic World, he focused a great deal of his creative energies on asserting his opinion," the insider stated. "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."
According to the report, Trevorrow’s relationship with Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy became reportedly “unmanageable” during preproduction when “repeated stabs at multiple drafts” of the script were being undertaken.
"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," the executive continued. "He’s a difficult guy. He’s really, really, really confident. Let’s call it that."
How crucial Kennedy is to Lucasfilm can’t be emphasised enough – her clashing with Lord and Miller was what also led to their being dumped from the Han Solo flick. “There’s one gatekeeper when it comes to Star Wars and it’s Kathleen Kennedy,” a veteran movie producer, who has worked with the studio chief, told Vulture. “If you rub Kathleen Kennedy the wrong way — in any way — you’re out. You’re done. A lot of these young, new directors want to come in and say, ‘I want to do this. I want to do that.’
“A lot of these guys — Lord and Miller, Colin Trevorrow — got very rich, very fast and believed a lot of their own hype. And they don’t want to play by the rules. They want to do s*** differently. And Kathleen Kennedy isn’t going to f*** around with that.”
No word yet on who will replace Trevorrow although both Rian Johnson and Gareth Edward’s names have been thrown around.