Star Wars Episode IX - Colin Trevorrow Out, J.J. Abrams Back In

Well, we’ve got yet another directorial shake-up on our hands in the Star Wars universe. Just a few months after Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were booted from the Han Solo spin-off film and replaced by Ron Howard, the same has now happened with the ninth installment of the main series, Episode IX. Originally, the film was set to be directed by Colin Trevorrow, who was fresh off 2015’s worldwide smash hit Jurassic World… and this year’s critically derided Book of Henry (more on that in a bit). However, like Lord and Miller, it was recently announced that Trevorrow had backed out of directing the film due to, what else, creative differences with Lucasfilm. But, once again, the search for a new director did not last long, and in this case, it was an old familiar face who stepped in to finish the job. Yes, folks, J.J. Abrams, the man, myth, and legend who kick-started the new Star Wars trilogy on the right note with The Force Awakens is coming back to write and direct Episode IX. Given the critical/commercial success of TFA, it seems like this would be a well-received decision, right? Well, not exactly… Yes, folks, the Star Wars franchise has been in quite a state of flux as of late due to several of the recent developments surrounding its upcoming films. This is the second time in a row now that a Star Wars director has been ‘fired’ from the job due to creative differences with the studio and producer Kathleen Kennedy (three if you count the time when Josh Trank stepped down from helming a spin-off film presumably due to his behavior during the disastrous production of the 2015 reboot of Fantastic Four). This has, unfortunately, put Kennedy in a tough situation as she’s been subjected to tons of flak that, dare I say, verges a bit on sexism. I’ve gone over this before when I discussed the Han Solo incident so I won’t repeat myself too much here other than the fact that, given her prestigious career in the industry, Ms. Kennedy doesn’t deserve all this criticism over something that could happen to any film producer.

I mean, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; film productions don’t always go perfectly. There will be times where a film will be affected by problems that may often require something along the lines of reshoots, script rewrites, and so on and so forth. However, just because a film has a troubled production doesn’t automatically mean that it’s doomed to failure. Seriously, it’s because of incidents like this that I’m extremely happy that social media wasn’t around in the time of films like Jaws and the original Star Wars; good lord, we would’ve never heard the end of those films’ production woes had that been the case. And in terms of what’s going on right now with Episode IX, at least this wasn’t like what happened with the Han Solo film where the director switcheroo occurred more than halfway through filming. Episode IX, on the other hand, hasn’t even started production yet. In fact, not long after J.J.’s hiring was confirmed, it was also announced that the film had been pushed back to the franchise’s preferred release month of December 2019, which effectively gives J.J. more time to prepare for it instead of rushing through it so that it’d be out by its original May 2019 release date. Now, granted, I am aware that these recent bits of production turmoil have been somewhat of a common occurrence as of late with the Disney-owned era Star Wars films. Aside from these recent directorial hiccups, there was also, of course, the dilemma that Rogue One faced when it had to go through reshoots, namely to rework its third act. Ultimately, though, all the hubbub surrounding these events is just a consequence of an age where we can practically know anything about a film’s production.

With that said, though, let me make something clear; unless proven otherwise, I’m 100% confident that Trevorrow wasn’t kicked off Episode IX because of the negative reception towards The Book of Henry. I’ve talked before about how the internet over-reacted quite a bit when the film came out to the point where several articles posed the same exact question; ‘Is Episode IX in trouble?’… even though the film wasn’t even in production yet. Heck, even the polarizing reaction to Jurassic World played a factor into the hesitation surrounding Trevorrow’s hiring. It got to the point where, apparently, some people were ‘happy’ when the news broke of his departure. This ties into something that I’ve always questioned about the online film fan community and that is its tendency to focus more on films that they dislike rather than those that they did like. I mean, seriously, if Trevorrow had truly gotten canned just because of Book of Henry, then J.J. Abrams could’ve been denied from directing The Force Awakens just because of the blowback that he got over Star Trek Into Darkness’ use of elements from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Heck, imagine if this mentality was implemented with the Marvel Cinematic Universe films; I guarantee you that NONE of the MCU directors would’ve even been hired if judged solely for their misfires. I mean, after all, the director of the Guardians of the Galaxy films did write the live-action Scooby-Doo films. Or remember when the directors of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, and the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War directed You, Me, and Dupree? Bottom line, the validity of a director’s qualifications for a certain project shouldn’t be judged solely because of one bad film that they made. Case in point, even though Trevorrow attracted a lot of flak for Jurassic World and Book of Henry, he did also direct 2012’s indie hit Safety Not Guaranteed.  

Thus, prior to these recent turn of events, I was optimistic about Trevorrow’s hiring and confident in his ability to make an entertaining Star Wars film. But, of course, that isn’t happening anymore so now we get to look forward to another J.J. Abrams-directed Star Wars film. Hurrah! However, as noted in the intro, the news of J.J.’s return hasn’t really gone over well with everybody and the main reason why is that some feel that he’s too ‘safe’ of a choice to direct the film. That might have something to do with the one thing that I’m sure many of you have already guessed about when I said the word ‘safe’. Yep, it’s the common criticism of The Force Awakens’ shared similarities with Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Really, there’s not much more that I can bring to this discussion other than my belief that the internet’s just beating a dead horse at this point. Heck, even Ron Howard’s hiring for the Han Solo film was deemed as a ‘safe’ pick to replace Phil Lord and Chris Miller. All this just goes to show the increasing pressure that the franchise has been under recently from fans who have been demanding that they enlist more ‘auteur’ directors who can bring something ‘new’ to the franchise. And while I’m not against that, for the record, from what I can gather, the main reason why Lord, Miller, and even Trevorrow were let go was that their directorial personalities clashed with Lucasfilm’s vision for the franchise. And as controversial as it will undoubtedly sound to some of you, I think that this was ultimately for the best. Again, I’m all for new takes on the Star Wars franchise. However, the amount of creative clout that a director is given on a film can sometimes end up having a severely negative effect on it (e.g. Batman Returns, Sucker Punch). Heck, this has even happened before with this franchise; just look at when the prequels came out.

And it’s a shame, really, that these recent ‘studio vs. director’ controversies have had a negative impact on J.J. Abrams’ return to the franchise. Given the ever-present ‘it’s just a rehash of A New Hope’ argument, it feels like the internet’s collective opinion of The Force Awakens has changed quite drastically since it came out. It’s legitimately at the point now where I’m beginning to wonder if it and Rogue One were truly the critical/commercial hits that they were. Oh sure, they both did well with critics and have collectively grossed over $3 billion at the box-office, a total which will surely increase by another $1-2 billion once The Last Jedi comes out. But in an age where shows like Honest Trailers and Cinemasins are becoming more and more prominent, it’s becoming a lot harder for films to maintain the positive reputation that they had upon their initial release. It also just goes to show how Star Wars is easily the most scrutinized film franchise of all-time, as the expectations for it are bigger than the Marvel and DC Cinematic Universes, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings franchises combined. Even when it’s doing well, there are always plenty of naysayers out there who will try and bring it down. And given these recent turn of events, it feels like this is all just putting more overt pressure on Rian Johnson to truly deliver with The Last Jedi. However, despite all the behind-the-scenes drama that’s been going on as of late, I’m still looking forward to these next few Star Wars films. Because if they do turn out great, then all the pre-judgmental backlash directed against them will have just been utterly pointless. And while I know that I’m undoubtedly biased because he’s one of my favorite directors working today, the announcement of J.J. Abrams’ return for Episode IX just makes me even more excited for it because of how much I loved The Force Awakens. In other words, to quote the classic hashtag created by popular Star Wars Youtuber HelloGreedo, #InJJWeTrust.

And, just for the hell of it, it’s time for the return of a classic meme that I created prior to the release of The Force Awakens. Feel free to use it as you see fit.

The 'Han Solo' Debacle

Well, folks, it looks like we have another Ant-Man situation on our hands and this time, it just so happens to come from the biggest franchise in pop culture history; Star Wars. It’s recently been announced that directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who have been working on a Star Wars spin-off film based around the series’ iconic character Han Solo, have departed the project due to creative differences with Lucasfilm, producer Kathleen Kennedy, and co-writer Lawrence Kasdan. Basically, it’s been reported that Lord and Miller’s comedic sensibilities as directors did not gel well with the overall tone that Kennedy and Kasdan were going for with the upcoming film, which is still set to come out in May 2018. And this situation is, overall, rather fascinating because the film has already been in production for a few months at this point. However, it’s also been reported that this creative clash has been going on since Day 1 and that the production had recently gone on a brief hiatus to review everything that’s been filmed so far. So, yeah, this is quite a controversial situation that we have here today. Already, there’s been quite a lot of uncertainty over this upcoming film given that it’s a new take on arguably the most popular character in the Star Wars franchise. And if that wasn’t enough, this will be the first time where Han Solo isn’t played by Harrison Ford; instead, Alden Ehrenreich will take on the role of the beloved smuggler. However, when Lord and Miller were brought on to direct, I think that some of this uncertainty was dialed back given their track record with films that didn’t seem like they’d amount to much; films like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 and 22 Jump Street, and The LEGO Movie. But now, with this news of their departure, it seems like that uncertainty has once again returned.

However, incidents like this are nothing new. As I noted in the intro, a similar situation happened with another Disney-owned franchise, Marvel, in 2014 when Edgar Wright left Ant-Man due to creative differences with Marvel Studios’ now disbanded Creative Committee. Despite many on the internet speculating that it would end up being Marvel’s first misfire, Ant-Man ended up proving most of its critics wrong when it was finally released in 2015 after being in development for almost a decade. Heck, this isn’t even the first time that something like this has happened to a Star Wars film. As we all know, last year’s spin-off Rogue One had to go through re-shoots to rework parts of the story, specifically the ending. And while the film did ultimately manage to do well with critics and audiences, this ‘reshoot’ situation was well-documented online prior to its release… and by that, I mean that there were TONS of articles published that wondered if it was going to be a mess before anyone ever even saw the damn film. You see, that’s sort of the thing when it comes to how the internet reacts to reports like this about how a film is going through re-shoots or a change in directors. Most of the time, the internet prematurely assumes that this means that the film is going to be a disastrous mess. And yet, this isn’t a rare thing in big-budget blockbusters of this nature. Some of the most successful films of all-time have gone through some truly troubling production issues and yet have ended up being solid successes at the end of the day. In fact, you know what film managed to overcome its numerous production issues to become one of the most beloved films of all-time? Oh, I don’t know, a little film called STAR WARS?! Yes, even the original Star Wars film from 1977 went through a rather hellish production… and look how that turned out! We wouldn’t even be here today if it didn’t end up being the landmark that it was.

But, honestly, here’s the thing about this whole situation that I’m the most pissed off about, and it doesn’t have anything to do with the film itself. Instead, it’s the backlash that producer Kathleen Kennedy has been getting online because of her role in Lord and Miller’s departure (or, to put it more bluntly, firing). In other words, it’s that old debate about producers asserting control over the films that they make at the expense of the directors that they’ve hired. And this has gone as far to the point where I’ve seen several articles that have posed the question of whether Lucasfilm should appoint new leadership, given that Kennedy’s currently the head of the studio after she took over for George Lucas in 2012. But here’s where I call major bulls*** on that. First off, let’s not forget that Lawrence Kasdan also clashed with Lord and Miller’s methods; I don’t see him getting thrown under the bus as much as Kennedy has. Also, going back to Marvel and Ant-Man for a second, I sure as hell don’t recall seeing any articles from 2014 that suggested that Kevin Feige should be replaced as head of Marvel Studios after the Edgar Wright incident. And, yes, I know that this was mainly the fault of Marvel’s Creative Committee but that’s not my point. Basically, what I’m trying to say here is that it’s just sad to witness what Kennedy is going through right now. This woman has been in the film industry for a long time and has produced several classics over the years, including several Steven Spielberg films like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Jurassic Park. Since she became the head of Lucasfilm, she’s had a big part in the revival of the Star Wars film franchise and, so far, things have turned out quite well for it, as both The Force Awakens and Rogue One have each grossed over $1 billion worldwide. And yet… this latest directorial-related incident has suddenly made her public enemy number 1. It’s a damn shame.  

Thankfully, though, they’ve already found a replacement director. It’s just been announced that the legendary Ron Howard will be stepping in to direct the new film, and overall, I support this hiring; sure, some will argue that some of Howard’s more recent films haven’t been very good, but that shouldn’t even remotely detract from the great films that he has made in the past, like Apollo 13 and Rush. Hell, I can even do a whole different editorial on how the internet tends to judge filmmakers more for their misfires than their successes. Coincidentally enough, the idea for that editorial stemmed from another Star Wars-related debacle. This past weekend saw the release of The Book of Henry, directed by Colin Trevorrow, who will be directing Episode IX in 2019… and, to be perfectly blunt, Book of Henry did not do well with critics. Thus, several articles popped up online posing the question of whether Trevorrow was still a good choice to direct the film, something that’s persisted since he was first hired due to the generally polarizing reception towards 2015’s Jurassic World and despite the critical acclaim of his directorial debut, 2012’s Safety Not Guaranteed… but that’s another story, back to Han Solo. Bottom line, I’m still very much looking forward to this film and I do think that Ron Howard is a nice choice for director. And because this crisis was dealt with in a timely manner, it seems like the film won’t be pushed back to December as was feared when Lord and Miller’s departure was first announced. Yes, it’s sad that this happened to Phil Lord and Chris Miller, but I’m sure that they’ll recover from this the same way that Edgar Wright recovered from the whole Ant-Man situation with next weekend’s big release, Baby Driver. Meanwhile, it’s a shame that Ron Howard is now going through the same scenario that Peyton Reed went through when he had to step in for Wright on Ant-Man. Yeah, I know that it currently seems like the odds are very much against this upcoming Star Wars film but, to quote the film’s title character himself from The Empire Strike Back, “Never tell me the odds!” Given Disney and Lucasfilm’s excellent track record so far with these new Star Wars films, this new film could indeed work despite this scandalous turn of events.