Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow has opened up for the first time about his departure from Star Wars Episode IX.

It was announced that Colin Trevorrow would direct the sci fi epic back in 2015 but two years later, it was announced that he’d left the project. A statement from Lucasfilm claimed that all parties had "mutually chosen to part ways."

Trevorrow doesn’t harbour any ill feeling about what transpired and indeed said he ‘will cherish for the rest of my my life’ the experience of having worked on it for the time he did. Speaking to Empire, the director revealed he got to tell George Lucas and Mark Hamill his story outline for the next chapter.

"I don't want to talk too much about it because I don't want to affect the way that fans get to see these films," he said. "When we were kids, these movies came to us from far away. They were a gift. And the more we talk about how they're made, the more it reveals that they're just movies. But they're not just movies, they're more than that.

"Beyond that, I got the opportunity to tell a story that is a celebration of everything I believe in, I got to tell it to George Lucas and I got to tell it to Luke Skywalker, and those are experiences I will cherish for the rest of my life."

JJ Abrams is now working on a new script for Episode IX with co-writer Chris Terrio. Abrams will direct the film for a December 2019 release.

Solo: A Star Wars Story, which is out in cinemas now, also had a mid-shoot director change, thus Episode IX is not the only Star Wars project that's been hit by creative differences in the past 12 months.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is out in cinemas from June 8th (We got to speak with cast members Jeff Goldblum, Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard about it). Trevorrow confirmed that he will direct Jurassic World 3 and is writing the screenplay with Emily Carmichael, from a story co-written by regular collaborator Derek Connolly.