Once upon a time, Colin Trevorrow was all set to direct STAR WARS: EPISODE IX, but after several years of development, Lucasfilm parted ways with the director, saying that "Colin has been a wonderful collaborator throughout the development process but we have all come to the conclusion that our visions for the project differ. We wish Colin the best and will be sharing more information about the film soon." It was soon announced that STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS director J.J. Abrams would return to take the helm of EPISODE IX, and Trevorrow would later move on to the JURASSIC WORLD franchise to direct the final installment of the trilogy.
There have been rumblings that Colin Trevorrow was forced to exit the STAR WARS franchise when he became "difficult" and "unmanageable," but another factor may have been the extremely negative reaction which THE BOOK OF HENRY received upon release. While speaking with Uproxx, Trevorrow was asked whether the reaction to the film may have had anything to do with Lucasfilm giving him the boot.
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.
Colin Trevorrow isn't exactly the first person to lose out on helming a film in the STAR WARS universe, something which the director is painfully aware of. "I know all of them. These are friends of mine and I was very close to them through all of their experiences," Trevorrow said. "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."
Going from releasing one of the highest-grossing films of all-time to a bomb like THE BOOK OF HENRY definitely wasn't what Colin Trevorrow had intended, but the director was eager to show that he could do more than "making new versions of films that other people love for the rest of my life." However, when the film was met with such a negative reaction, it was hard not to take it personally.
It was painful. But, you know, life is full of pain, and we all experience loss. Not all of us have to watch it play out online, but that’s the gig. And I feel like in America right now, your pain is bait. You know, your pain is clickable. And my kids felt it, my wife felt it. But, you know, there are moments in your life when your kids see that you’ve fallen down. And they watch, waiting to see if you’re going to get up. And how you handle failure will teach them how to handle it themselves… But absolutely, the response to it was devastating. And mostly because it was made with such love by so many people who felt so earnestly good about what they were doing. It definitely wasn’t one of those movies that you hear about where everyone knows it’s a piece of shit. It was not that at all.
After that failure, you can understand why Colin Trevorrow would want to retreat to the relative safety of the JURASSIC WORLD franchise, but I would hope that he gets back to telling non-franchise stories once all is said and done. As for JURASSIC WORLD 3, Trevorrow has teased that it will be closer in tone to Steven Spielberg's 1993 JURASSIC PARK than either JURASSIC WORLD or JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM. "If I could contextualize each film, I would say Jurassic World was an action adventure, Fallen Kingdom is kind of a horror suspense film, and Jurassic World 3 will be a science thriller in the same way that Jurassic Park was," said the director. Colin Trevorrow is currently scripting JURASSIC WORLD 3 along with Emily Carmichael (PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING), and although he wouldn't spill any details, he did say that although the final film will still feature Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), there's "other characters who we’ll meet in Fallen Kingdom you’ll realize are major characters."
STAR WARS: EPISODE IX will hit theaters on December 20, 2019, with JURASSIC WORLD 3 following on June 11, 2021.