Kathleen Kennedy Explains Why Colin Trevorrow Didn't End Up Directing STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

Before J.J Abrams jumped on board to helm Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow was developing the film. Lucasfilm and Trevorrow ended up parting ways shortly after Trevorrow’s film Book of Henry flopped at the box office. There were also rumors that Trevorrow was difficult to work with.

Well, now Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy is opening up about what happened and explaining why they ended up not working with Trevorrow. While talking to io9 she said:

“Colin was at a huge disadvantage not having been a part of Force Awakens and in part of those early conversations because we had a general sense of where the story was going. Like any development process, it was only in the development that we’re looking at a first draft and realizing that it was perhaps heading in a direction that many of us didn’t feel was really quite where we wanted it to go.”

Kennedy also went on to explain that the release schedule they had in place was also an inconvenience for Trevorrow:

“We were on a schedule, as we often are with these movies, and had to make a tough decision as to whether or not we thought we could get there in the time or not. And as I said, Colin was at a disadvantage because he hadn’t been immersed in everything that we all had starting out with Episode VII.”

Regardless of that and the creative differences that they had, Trevorrow still maintains a story credit on the film. That means enough of his ideas made into the final cut of the film to warrant the credit. Kennedy doesn’t really blame Trevorrow for any behind-the-scenes drama or throw him under the bus, and I didn’t think she would. Instead, she stayed professional and just chalked it all up to Trevorrow being at a disadvantage.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens December 20, 2019.