Former Star Wars: Episode IX director Colin Trevorrow says the negative response to The Book of Henry had no impact on his leaving the sequel trilogy finale. It's safe to say the filmmaker has been on quite a roller coaster the past few years. In 2015, he established himself as an up-and-coming helmsman by calling the shots on the $1.6 billion smash Jurassic World, a franchise revival that kickstarted a new trilogy. Shortly after that success, he was pegged by Lucasfilm to call the shots on Star Wars 9, but before that, he had another project to work on.
The Book of Henry, Trevorrow's third feature film, was released around this time last summer, and was widely panned for its tonally-confused narrative that attempted (and failed) to blend subjects that were quite disparate. In the aftermath of Henry being shredded by critics and sinking at the box office, many wondered if its reception was poor enough to get Trevorrow kicked off Episode IX. He was removed from Star Wars 9 just a few months after the Book of Henry debacle, but it was purely coincidental.
Related: Colin Trevorrow Will 'Cherish' Star Wars 9 Experience
In an interview with Uproxx, Trevorrow was asked if he thought there was any correlation between Book of Henry's reviews and his Star Wars 9 exit. He said while the reaction to Henry was "damaging," it didn't have much influence over Lucasfilm - which was its own beast entirely:
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.
Even the industry's greatest directors are capable of making a bad movie, so it's difficult to hold one misfire against someone. Rather than The Book of Henry, Lucasfilm's issues with Trevorrow seemed to stem from an underwhelming screenplay that went through several iterations (including a fresh restart after Carrie Fisher passed away) and never impressed the higher-ups. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy eventually decided to part ways with Trevorrow and hired J.J. Abrams (who is also directing) & Chris Terrio to bring Episode IX to the big screen, and things have gone much smoother from there. Abrams is gearing up to start production next month, well ahead of the movie's December 2019 release date. In the meantime, Trevorrow picked up the Jurassic World 3 directing gig, meaning he will bring a blockbuster trilogy to a close after all.
Directors who have pretty spotless track records (see: Phil Lord & Chris Miller) have been let go from Star Wars films in the past, so Lucasfilm has a very clear idea of what they want their films to be. It doesn't matter what your résumé boasts, if your vision differs from that, the studio is going in a different direction. Obviously, Trevorrow's sensibilities were deemed a bad fit for Episode IX. Maybe one day the right Star Wars project will come across his desk, but for now he's content to stay in the world of dinosaurs.
MORE: Everything We Know About Trevorrow's Scrapped Star Wars 9
Source: Uproxx
