Since Disney has helped with the rebirth of the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, some things have not gone according to plan, mostly regarding the firing of a few directors. Phil Lord and Chris Miller both withdrew from ‘Solo’ during filming, and Colin Trevorrow also departed ‘Episode IX’ several months ago.
Trevorrow has kept quiet about the decision but was recently asked if his film ‘The Book of Henry’ and its poor performance might have had something to do with Lucasfilm’s decision to part ways. He responded to the question, saying:
“You know, I don’t know. I mean, I can’t really speculate on it. I’ll tell you that the reaction to ‘Book of Henry’ was far more damaging than the actual movie. And I don’t mean specifically at Lucasfilm. I mean, that was a very acidic situation. And, look, every director who has worked in Lucasfilm put their heart and soul into the job and they left it all on the field, and the bottom line here is that sometimes creative people can’t find a shared path through the woods.”
Trevorrow’s other film, ‘Jurassic World’ was wildly successful, but ‘The Book of Henry,’ despite a strong cast, was slammed by critics, and it failed to turn a profit. There is a chance this may have scared Disney off, resulting in J.J. Abrams coming in to finish what he started.
In the same interview, Trevorrow spoke about the other directors that have been let go from ‘Star Wars’ projects, and how much the franchise means to him:
“I know all of them. These are friends of mine and I was very close to them through all of their experiences. And ‘Star Wars’ is a very personal thing to all of them, to a lot of people, and there are some people out there — and I know folks might think we’re crazy — but people like me, who actually believe that there is an all-powerful force that binds the galaxy together. And when you’re one of those people, you’re dealing with your belief system, you’re not just dealing with a movie. And so, yeah, that is a very personal loss.”
While Trevorrow is disappointed about ‘Episode IX,’ he has several big things in the works. ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,’ which he produced and wrote opens later this month. He steps back into the director’s chair for the ‘Jurassic World 3,’ set to arrive in 2021.
Source: Uproxx
