Lucasfilm announced that "The Force Awakens" director J.J. Abrams will be returning to the franchise to direct the upcoming "Star Wars: Episode IX." This is after director Colin Trevorrow left the project. As a result of the personnel change, the film also had its premiere date moved several months later, and will open instead on December 2019.
"With The Force Awakens, J.J. delivered everything we could have possibly hoped for, and I am so excited that he is coming back to close out this trilogy," said Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy.
The third installment of the current trilogy lost its director last week, when Lucasfilm and Trevorrow announced that they have mutually decided to part ways due to the differences in their visions about the upcoming film.
The departure of Trevorrow is only one of a number of personnel changes that Disney and Lucasfilm has implemented on recent "Star Wars" projects. A few months ago, directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord were fired from the upcoming "Han Solo" film. Last year, Disney performed extensive reshoots and editing on the anthology film "Rogue One."
Abrams wrote and directed the saga's "The Force Awakens," which brought new life to the Star Wars franchise and successfully launched the new trilogy. It focused on new characters while featuring some familiar faces from the franchise's original trilogy from the 70s and 80s.
The veteran director will also be co-writing the "Episode IX" with Chris Terrio, who also wrote "Argo," "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," and "Justice League." Abrams also served as one of the executive producers for "The Last Jedi," which should make his takeover of "Episode IX" easier.
"The Force Awakens" director is no stranger to sequels, having directed "Star Trek Into Darkness" in 2013 after rebooting the popular franchise with 2009's "Star Trek."
The release of "Star Wars Episode IX" has been moved from May 24 to Dec 20, 2019.
