After rumours were spreading last week about Rian Johnson potentially replacing Colin Trevorrow – following the Jurassic World director stepping down from the helm of the third of the new trilogy – it has now been announced that taking his throne back will be Episode VII director JJ Abrams.
President of LucasFilm, Kathleen Kennedy, had this to say: “With The Force Awakens, J.J. delivered everything we could have possibly hoped for, and I am so excited that he is coming back to close out this trilogy.”
Abrams foray into the Star Wars universe brought $2 billion into the bank, making Star Wars – Episode VII: The Force Awakens one of the biggest cinema successes of all time, and blowing all over movies out of the water in 2015. So it’s understandable that LucasFilm would invite him back, and trust the franchise’s newest trilogy to be closed out in safe hands.
Both Episode IX and the upcoming Han Solo Movie have been littered with problems, with the directors of the Han Solo project both leaving the film shortly after shooting began. Trevorrow departed the next episode after continues conflicts over the script haggard his time on the movie. The director and studio mutually decided to part ways. While Gareth Edwards did most of the work on Rogue One the reshoots were led by Tony Gilroy.
With Abrams credentials including a previous episode, we’re sure there is nothing more to worry about.
Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi will be out in cinemas on 15 December. Get all the latest sci-fi news with every issue of SciFiNow.