Colin Trevorrow no longer directing Episode IX.

[DigificWriter]

If Lucasfilm lets J.J. Abrams anywhere near the Saga again and doesn't contractually restrict his ability to ignore the thematic and mythological foundations upon which the franchise has been built, I will boycott the franchise in its entirety.

Lucas himself directing again and returning to the franchise he started would be amazing, but is most likely a pipe dream.

 

[Tosk]

Hard to imagine any scenario where a retired guy who used to own the whole universe now comes back and works for the "white slavers" he sold it all to. What could possibly be in it for him?

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

I for one liked Jurassic World and am kinda disappointed about Trevorrow's departure. I have a bad feeling about this.

 

[C.E. Evans]

LucasFilm not Disney.

Splitting hairs. There wouldn't be any new Star Wars movies without Disney.

 

[Beagleman]

I loved JW, but eh, the franchise is more or less directed by the producers at this point, whoever does the actual job doesn't really matter all that much as long as they technically competent.

 

[Venardhi]

I loved JW, but eh, the franchise is more or less directed by the producers at this point, whoever does the actual job doesn't really matter all that much as long as they technically competent.

I don't think that is anywhere near true. Just from the first trailer it is already clear Johnson has a very different view on this universe than Abrams or Edwards. Kennedy may be making the final decisions on what gets released, and shepherding that process, but the "voice" in these films is not hers.

I'm personally thrilled to see Trevorrow out. Jurassic World was self-referential and cartoonish. It winked at the audience harder than even Rogue One.

 

[Reverend]

Not massively bothered about Trevorrow's departure. The only work of his I've seen so far was 'Jurassic World' and honestly it felt like the work of a director that still has a ways to go before I'd like to see them do a Star Wars movie. Too shallow for my tastes.

For similar reason's I'd rather not see JJA come back. Not because I have any strong feelings about him in particular (unlike some quarters) but I just feel that he's mostly flash and not a lot of substance. This can work OK for an introduction movie like TFA, but he's up there with Stephen King for struggling with the third act and Ep IX is likely to be one big third act.

I've seen Dave Filloni's name suggested in a few places and while I know he has the creative talent and investment in the material in spades, I doubt Disney are going to trust someone so inexperienced with live action production, let alone on of this scale. Plus I suspect he'll be busy with whatever new animation project they have on the go for several years to come.

I know he'll probably never do it (I mean, he's hardly going to say yes to Kathleen after he say no to George way back when) but I'd love to see Spielberg give it a go.

 

[The Wormhole]

If Lucasfilm lets J.J. Abrams anywhere near the Saga again and doesn't contractually restrict his ability to ignore the thematic and mythological foundations upon which the franchise has been built, I will boycott the franchise in its entirety.

While I'm not the biggest Abrams fan around, and indeed I will take every and any opportunity to slam, diss and criticize him, I'm afraid I don't get how TFA ignored the thematic and mythological foundations of the franchise. If anything, it's so close to ANH to the point of being derivative. And I say that as someone who likes TFA.

 

[DigificWriter]

Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan made The Force Awakens with very specific intent: they were trying to recreate their own personal connection to the original Star Wars without recognizing or acknowledging the deeper "vision" of the overall Saga... and it is blatantly apparent in every aspect of the film and in the way both men spoke about the project.

The Force Awakens bears such a strong resemblance to A New Hope not because Lucasfilm wanted to play to nostalgia, but because they let Abrams and Kasdan attempt to turn back the clock to May 1977 and make a film that, like the original Star Wars, existed in a vacuum and was designed to make audiences feel exactly the way that Abrams and Kasdan did walking out of the theater in the early summer of 1977... which wouldn't be an issue if it didn't alienate the film from the rest of the franchise thematically and ignored the mythological underpinnings that permeate the Saga and had significant influence over the way in which its previous installments told their stories.

 

[Saul]

Who the hell would want this job with the guillotine over your head from Kennedy.

Hard to imagine any scenario where a retired guy who used to own the whole universe now comes back and works for the "white slavers" he sold it all to. What could possibly be in it for him?

Same reason Napoleon came back from exile to fight the battle of Waterloo. One last battle to turn everything around and for glory to be his again.

 

[JD]

Imagine capping off the main trilogy with Spielberg directing episode 10

That would be awesome, but according to Wikipedia he's got a bunch of other movies planned after Ready Player One, inculduing the next Indiana Jones, and I don't know if he's going to want to push them back to rush into EpIX.

 

[Tuskin38]

Splitting hairs. There wouldn't be any new Star Wars movies without Disney.

Even the official press-release released by Disney themselves says LucasFilm.

Kathleen Kennedy probably made the decision.

I loved JW, but eh, the franchise is more or less directed by the producers at this point, whoever does the actual job doesn't really matter all that much as long as they technically competent.

Rian Johnson has been said to have been given a lot of freedom by LucasFilm, they are very happy with what he is doing.

 

[The Wormhole]

which wouldn't be an issue if it didn't alienate the film from the rest of the franchise thematically and ignored the mythological underpinnings that permeate the Saga and had significant influence over the way in which its previous installments told their stories.

You still haven't really explained how it does that. Yes, the film is derivative of ANH, both with the story and Abrams's attempt to make lightning strike twice by trying to replicate circumstances behind how the film was made and released and promoted. but how does that "alienate the film from the rest of the franchise thematically and ignored the mythological underpinnings that permeate the Saga and had significant influence over the way in which its previous installments told their stories."?

 

[DigificWriter]

Actually, I DID explain how and why Abrams and Kasdan's approach to and intent in making TFA "alienates the film from the rest of the franchise thematically and ignored the mythological underpinnings that permeate the Saga and had significant influence over the way in which its previous installments told their stories".

Because they made TFA with the express intent of recapturing THEIR own impressions upon seeing ANH for the first time, neither Abrams nor Kasdan paid any attention to the thematic and mythological underpinnings of the other films in the Saga and treated the film as if it existed solely on its own with nothing occurring either before or after it... and, in so doing, weakened its overall narrative structure by ignoring anything that they didn't deem to be "relevant" simply because they wanted to recreate the austere "standalone" narrative environment that they believed to exist at the time they first saw ANH in May 1977, which robs the film of a lot of the thematic impact it needed to have and forced Lucasfilm to relegate information that by all rights ought to have been in the film itself to other mediums that most of the "viewing public" will never be exposed to.

Abrams and Kasdan's approach also made far more of the notion of Rey's parentage being narratively significant than is actually going to be warranted (by the admission of both Daisy Ridley herself and Rian Johnson), setting up expectations that the film isn't going to actually deliver on.

 

[fireproof78]

Actually, I DID explain how and why Abrams and Kasdan's approach to and intent in making TFA "alienates the film from the rest of the franchise thematically and ignored the mythological underpinnings that permeate the Saga and had significant influence over the way in which its previous installments told their stories".

Because they made TFA with the express intent of recapturing THEIR own impressions upon seeing ANH for the first time, neither Abrams nor Kasdan paid any attention to the thematic and mythological underpinnings of the other films in the Saga and treated the film as if it existed solely on its own with nothing occurring either before or after it... and, in so doing, weakened its overall narrative structure by ignoring anything that they didn't deem to be "relevant" simply because they wanted to recreate the austere "standalone" narrative environment that they believed to exist at the time they first saw ANH in May 1977, which robs the film of a lot of the thematic impact it needed to have and forced Lucasfilm to relegate information that by all rights ought to have been in the film itself to other mediums that most of the "viewing public" will never be exposed to.

Abrams and Kasdan's approach also made far more of the notion of Rey's parentage being narratively significant than is actually going to be warranted (by the admission of both Daisy Ridley herself and Rian Johnson), setting up expectations that the film isn't going to actually deliver on.

It's funny because I've heard the same arguments against AOTC. Interesting...

 

[WarpFactorZ]

The article says he wrote it too, so I wonder if his script will end up being rewritten for whoever comes in to take over. I could see them not being able to change to much since a lot of it is probably going to be based of off stuff set up in TFA and TLJ.

Maybe they fired him because he wrote that Rey is not Luke's daughter.

 

[The Wormhole]

which robs the film of a lot of the thematic impact it needed to have and forced Lucasfilm to relegate information that by all rights ought to have been in the film itself to other mediums that most of the "viewing public" will never be exposed to.

Oh, is this about how they didn't do much of a job setting up the setting, what the First Order is, why the Resistance exists and is apparently separate from the Republic and all that? Yeah, it was irritating, but hardly the betrayal of the franchise's fundamentals you're making it out to be. Indeed, much from the OT that we now consider definitive canon actually comes from ancillary material that wasn't available to the "viewing public." Hell, the name Tatooine doesn't show up on screen until the opening crawl of ROTJ and isn't spoken on screen until Phantom Menace. Tarkin's title of "Grand Moff" has never been spoken in either movie he's been in. In fact, I think the only on screen reference to him being a Grand Moff is the first episode of Rebels, and he's not even in that.

Abrams and Kasdan's approach also made far more of the notion of Rey's parentage being narratively significant than is actually going to be warranted (by the admission of both Daisy Ridley herself and Rian Johnson), setting up expectations that the film isn't going to actually deliver on.

Meh, I pretty much expected Rey's parents were going to be a disappointment. Either she's Luke's daughter or her parents are someone completely anticlimactic.

 

[DigificWriter]

^ It's not just about ignoring plot-important details; it's about the entire approach, from narrative to design to shot structure. Episodes 1-6 are all thematic "mirrors" of each other and have narrative and structural elements that are heavily rooted in mythology and archetype, whereas The Force Awakens' characters are standard "copycat" characters whose only real narrative purpose is to rehash superficial characteristics present in the characters of Han, Luke, and Leia as they existed in ANH, but without any of the archetypal and mythological nuances that were infused into them by Lucas.

If you actually peel away the base levels of characterization for Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo Ren, Maz, Snoke, Hux, Phasma, Han, and Leia, there's not actually much of any substance there for anyone other than Kylo.

Rey's appeal comes primarily from this false sense that there's some huge plot-changing secret about her lineage that's been hidden and is going to be revealed in subsequent films (something that we now know isn't actually going to be the case), Poe is a less interesting attempt to rehash Han's "charming rogue" character, Finn's just a comedy sidekick, Snoke, Maz, and Phasma are basically there to provide exposition and/or "look cool", But is your generic "bad guy military officer", and Han and Leia are essentially stuck in the same roles they occupied in the OT, albeit as older characters, although Han does end up becoming the film's "Obi-Wan" as the mentor figure who sacrifices themselves for the hero(ine).

 

[C.E. Evans]

Even the official press-release released by Disney themselves says LucasFilm.

Like I said, splitting hairs. It's just a division of Disney now.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

Rey's appeal comes primarily from this false sense that there's some huge plot-changing secret about her lineage that's been hidden and is going to be revealed in subsequent films (something that we now know isn't actually going to be the case),

There is no confirmation of this until someone says it on screen. Stop reporting it as if it were fact.