Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow will be directing Star Wars: Episode IX, it was announced today at Lucasfilm’s Star Wars presentation at the D23 Disney fan convention. The news confirms rumors that have percolating about the director’s job for the film for the last month.
Trevorrow follows in the footsteps of J J Abrams who will be directing this winter’s Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens and Rian Johnson, who is writing and directing 2017’s Star Wars: Episode VIII. Outside of the main Star Wars saga, Gareth Edwards is directing Star Wars: Rogue One, which will hit theaters in December 2016, and Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who will be helming another spin-off film, presumably about young Han Solo, which will be released in 2018.
Trevorrow’s career has taken quite the leap in the few short years since his debut feature Safety Not Guaranteed. The 2012 indie film about a magazine writer who investigates a man who placed a personals ad looking for someone to accompany him on a trip through time was strong enough for Universal to entrust him with rebooting their Jurassic Park franchise. And considering that Jurassic World is now the third biggest box office grosser of all time, I would say that that was a good call on Universal’s part. We’ll see how this works out for Lucasfilm, but it seems that someone so early in their career can certainly handle the pressure of a big budget tentpole film with heavy expectations.
Here’s the full Disney press release –
ANAHEIM, CALIF. (August 15, 2015)—Today at D23, Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn announced that writer-director Colin Trevorrow will direct Star Wars: Episode IX, which is set for release in 2019.
While production won’t begin for a few years, Trevorrow is heading to Lucasfilm this year to begin working with artists and his fellow Star Wars directors. “Colin is someone I’ve been interested in working with ever since I saw ‘Safety Not Guaranteed,’” says Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy. “The power of that film paired with the enormous success of ‘Jurassic World’ speaks volumes about his abilities both as a storyteller and skilled filmmaker. We are thrilled to have such an incredible talent as Colin join our family and step into the Star Wars universe.”
Trevorrow states, “This is not a job or an assignment. It is a seat at a campfire, surrounded by an extraordinary group of storytellers, filmmakers, artists and craftspeople. We’ve been charged with telling new stories for a younger generation because they deserve what we all had—a mythology to call their own. We will do this by channeling something George Lucas instilled in all of us: boundless creativity, pure invention and hope.”
Star Wars: Episode IX will conclude the third trilogy of Star Wars movies that begins with Star Wars: The Force Awakens on December 18, 2015.
