‘Jurassic World Dominion’ director explains how he was inspired by his ‘Star Wars’ dismissal

The Disney era of Star Wars has seen an alarming number of filmmakers come and go, many of whom didn’t even get a chance to shoot a single frame of footage before being given their marching orders. One of them was Jurassic World Dominion‘s Colin Trevorrow, who was initially tasked to helm the project that eventually became The Rise of Skywalker.

While the reasons for his departure vary depending on either who you ask or where you read it, the split appears to be amicable. Of course, J.J. Abrams ended up stepping behind the camera to try and right the ship after The Last Jedi had come perilously close to causing civil war among the fandom, while Trevorrow ended up heading back into the world of gigantic prehistoric lizards.

Dominion finally comes to theaters this Friday, and in an interview with Total Film, Trevorrow explained how his brief stint in a galaxy far, far away inspired the blockbuster sequel he ended up moving onto immediately afterwards.

“What I appreciate about having worked on Star Wars is that I really got a practice run at making a new version of something we loved when we were kids and bringing it to a satisfying conclusion. So I felt like I got a master’s degree in that, during that time.

And I took so much of what I learned, and also so many of the people who I worked with – Kevin Jenkins was our production designer on this. So many people who I met on that project came over and worked on Dominion, so I can’t feel anything but good about it, because it allowed us to make the film we made now.”

Like Trevorrow says, the similarities are there between the two films, with each one balancing the fresh with the familiar, throwing in plenty of nostalgia for good measure, but fans will be hoping Dominion doesn’t prove to be quite so polarizing.