Rian Johnson Had Creative Freedom on THE LAST JEDI; So Why Are Other Directors Being Let Go For "Creative Differences"?

As you all know by now, it was recently announced that by Lucasfilm that Star Wars: Episode IX director Colin Trevorrow is no longer attached to the project. He was let go because their visions for the project differed. This is one of the reasons used regarding Phil Lord and Chris Miller's departure in the middle of the Han Solo production. Maybe even the reason what Josh T It's pretty clear that these directors didn't have much creative freedom when developing their Star Wars projects.

Because of this, you would think that Lucasfilm has an outline or a formula that directors have to follow, and if the director's vision goes outside of that, then things aren't going to work. Well, according to Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, that's not the case at all. In fact, it seems like he was given complete creative freedom to do what he wanted.

While talking to Empire magazine, the director explains the freedom that he had and that there is no planned outline for these movies. 

"The perception of these films is that they’re all planned out on a secret sheet of paper in advance, but that’s just not the case. I wasn’t given an outline of where it goes or even a list of things to hit. It really was just, ‘Okay, what’s next?’

"I was terrified coming into this that I was gonna be like Barton Fink and have a script that was due six months ago and I'm still on page three writing about fishmongers. But it’s the most fun I’ve ever had writing something. The whole experience was incredible: just tapping into my ten-year-old self. Even though it’s Star Wars, the whole thing has felt bizarrely similar to my experience making Looper or Brick or The Brothers Bloom."

I think that's so interesting! If the directors are being given the creative freedom to tell their Star Wars stories, then there's obviously something more going on behind-the-scenes. Maybe they are just personality differences and if a person is difficult to work with, the studio doesn't want to work with them. It sounds like that was definitely the case with Lord and Miller. Maybe that was the same thing with Trevorrow and maybe even Josh Trank, who was working on the Boba Fett solo film. Or, maybe the studio just doesn't like the direction they want to take the story and characters. But, didn't they land the directing gig off their initial story pitch for the movie? Lucasfilm liked their ideas enough to hire them in the first place, so what changed? 

Maybe Rian Johnson just has the right kind of personality that fits in with the Lucasfilm and Star Wars culture. Whatever the case, maybe he is the right guy to continue the saga and jump on in to direct Episode IX, which has been rumored. He seems to have a solid relationship with the with everyone at Lucasfilm and he's obviously having a blast working with them on The Last Jedi.