Disney $DIS’s rebooted Star Wars franchise lost yet another director yesterday, when the company’s Lucasfilm branch announced it had mutually parted ways with Episode IX director Colin Trevorrow. The studio has not yet named a replacement, so that’s where we come in.
Lucasfilm won’t listen to suggestions from the internet—but perhaps it should. Though the last few Star Wars films wound up being successful (critically and commercially), they have been plagued by major production issues behind the scenes. The Force Awakens, directed by JJ Abrams, had a complete script overhaul before filming began. Rogue One, the first of the franchise’s spinoff movies, underwent significant reshoots under a different director. And only a few months ago, the directors of the standalone Han Solo film were fired.
Shooting on the still-nameless Episode IX is scheduled to begin in January (for a planned May 2019 release), so it’s highly unlikely Lucasfilm and its notoriously influential president Kathleen Kennedy will let go of whoever is brought in to replace Trevorrow. Their pick will probably be one of these people:
While each of these directors would likely do a good job with Episode IX, we have some more interesting ideas.
In reality, most of our dream directors below are probably busy with other projects—and may not be interested in Star Wars in the first place. Trevorrow’s replacement needs to be someone who can divert all their attention to this juggernaut of a film immediately in order to deliver a polished film on a very tight schedule.
Still, there’s no harm in making a wish list. Who knows, maybe Disney will keep them in mind for one of infinity future Star Wars films.
Other directors who would be cool but are even less likely: David Fincher, Kathryn Bigelow, Steven Soderbergh, George Miller, Alfonso Cuaron, Sofia Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Edgar Wright, and, of course, Christopher Nolan
