There has been a great disturbance in the Force. In fact, there's been a lot of disturbances in the Force recently. It's almost like something is wrong with Star Wars.So, Colin Trevorrow has been removed as director of Star Wars Episode IX ahead of the film's early-2018 production. These sort of headlines may be familiar to you as just three months ago we were reporting on the removal of Phil Lord and Chris Miller from Han Solo, swiftly replaced with the social-savvy Ron Howard. And troubles as Lucasfilm are hardly 2017 news either: in terms of movie coverage, 2016 was dominated by reports of reshoots on Rogue One that boiled down to director Gareth Edwards' down-and-dirty vision being replaced by rewrites, reshoots and reedits overseen by Tony Gilroy; and in 2015, Josh Trank was ousted from the Boba Fett film weeks before a showreel was set to premiere at Celebration. And all that's ignoring the fact Michael Arndt was replaced on screenwriting duties by safe hand Lawrence Kasdan and Jack Thorne has already taken on Episode IX scripting.Yes, Trevorrow's departure is just the latest in a line of behind-the-scenes issues at Lucasfilm on the Disney-era Star Wars. We have four films where directors have been replaced to varying degrees. That's four out of six, a worse troubled production batting rate than the oft-maligned DCEU. It's bad PR and based off tweets from other filmmakers under the Disney umbrella may cause some serious hiring issues in the future.Of course, the movies we've got thus far have been successful and it'd be churlish to say what's coming up looks anything other than great. But, production-wise, we're at a point where Star Wars is seemingly off the rails. And that's a serious problem.

Why Does Lucasfilm Keep Hiring Duds?

Phil Lord and Chris Miller in Hyperspace

Let's first look at the two recent departures. The biggest difference here is obviously that Lord and Miller almost got 85% of the way through production (and not a percentile more) before they left, whereas Trevorrow was still months off cameras rolling, but still both departed years after signing on - and have been handled in an oddly similar way.

For Han Solo, it was said in an official statement that "we had different creative visions on this film, and we've decided to part ways". For Episode IX, the line was "we have all come to the conclusion that our visions for the project differ". Both of those are fanciful ways of citing "creative differences", that age old adage, although considering the time these directors were on their respective projects - regardless of production development - it's strange. Solo's pair were hired in July 2015 and left in June 2017; Trevorrow came on in August 2015 and had now just left. Both were on the project for years before these differences seemingly became clear.

Sure, there can be miscommunication, but how can you go through one of the biggest casting calls of all time and a prep phase wherein the director managed to fit in a whole other film without differences of opinion emerging? If you can spend that long on a project with no one realizing something's off then there's a serious issue. Throw in Trank only leaving after Fantastic Four's behind-the-scenes drama (oh boy, look it up) and something's off.

What all these directors have in common is the reason for hiring: Trevorrow is said to have been eyed by Kennedy because of debut Safety Not Guaranteed before his billion-and-a-half smash Jurassic World; Lord and Miller were hired on Kasdan's recommendation; Trank presumably got in off the success of Chronicle. Basically, they were all hired on the promise of earlier films prior to major breakthroughs. Or, to put it another way, they were picked off early success without an understanding of how they got there.

When Disney first acquired the rights to make new Star Wars movies, there was a sense of them wanting to have unique voices who could provide a fresh take on the saga. That, quite simply, hasn't happened. J.J. Abrams was always going to deliver something fitting of the franchise and Rian Johnson (who seems to have gone through The Last Jedi with minimal drama) is the exception that proves the rule. Besides that, Kathleen Kennedy keeps hiring directors who prove to be unsuitable. And that's the problem.

Kathleen Kennedy gives a speech after being announced as LucasFilm chief

Lucasfilm Was Right To Get Rid Of The Directors

Should Colin Trevorrow have stayed on Episode IX? Honestly, no. He is an acquired taste at best with few real fans. Safety Not Guaranteed is a niche film without the breakout indie qualities its reputation deserves. Jurassic World was successful but that was more brand - the film itself missed much of the point it was explicitly trying to satirize. And that The Book of Henry was an ill-advised handling of delicate subject matter has been done to death. He wrote none of those films which means he's not totally to blame, but that he could sign off on a whimsical tale about cancer and domestic abuse (seriously, The Book of Henry is not good) shows he's not a barometer for quality. Given he was going to be wrapping up the new trilogy and perhaps episodic Star Wars as we know it, Colin's not ideal.

Should Lord and Miller have stayed on Han Solo? Perhaps not either. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street (also 22) and The Lego Movie are all going to be regarded as modern classics, but they're unique products quite openly made by two men renowned for their free-wheeling - two of which came from a different medium. And word says they were beginning to make big changes to the Star Wars Story gameplan. Considering that Solo is a movie mainly hyped on its script (a co-work of Lawrence Kasdan and son Larry) they're not a perfect fit. That's not to say their movie wouldn't have been good, but it may not be what Lucasfilm wanted.

Should Josh Trank have stayed on Boba Fett? No. Simply, Fantastic Four sucked and whatever the true production story is he messed up.

Why Did They Hire Them in The First Place?

BB-8 in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

With the above considered, firing (or showing the door to) these three make perfect sense. However, all of the traits that make them problematic within the confines of this studio/franchise were implicit before they were fired. The discussion isn't about - as many fans celebrating Ron Howard or hoping for Rian Johnson's return - why it's a good idea to get rid of them. It's why they were hired in the first place.

The objections to each respective hiring has already been outlined but perhaps it all boils down to something more fundamental: an understanding of Star Wars. Lucasfilm keeps hiring directors from the generation that saw the original trilogy as kids and were inspired to make movies because of that. These are people with staunch beliefs of what Star Wars is that are no less true than what a multi-billion dollar congolomerate thinks, but probably aren't as synergized or profitable.

We're not a movie studio. We've never made a movie. But we've visited enough sets, talked to enough filmmakers and, damn, seen enough films themselves to say that hiring someone totally wrong for the job is a bad idea. That drive to get interesting filmmakers seems to have overridden any sense of quality control at Lucasfilm. Maybe it's looking at the successes at Marvel around the time of the Disney aquisition, but there's more than enough cases to prove the notion of hiring indie directors hoping they turen into cinematic superstars (an issue we can trace back contemporarily to Christopher Nolan) is not the way to go.

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The reason Star Wars avoids the negative press thats greets other studio's comparable creative mistakes is that Lucasfilm has two good movies under its belt. The Force Awakens was a strong, evocative return of the franchise and Rogue One showed people would come out and care about obscure characters and events (defying the aforementioned director issues in the process). This gives the fans a sense of trust in the studio's choices - surely if they can make those two work everything else will work out fine - but as much as we love Star Wars the mounting issues are serious.

There's a lack of understanding. We previously caught flack for suggesting Kathleen Kennedy should step down, but it's clear that there's an ideological flaw in Lucasfilm that needs addressing. Whoever's hired to replace to Trevorrow, you have to hope they're suitable - we can't keep letting Star Wars off.

Next: Star Wars Has Always Had Director Problems Why?

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