Star Wars: Episode IX looked to be in dire trouble last week when it was announced that Colin Trevorrow had been removed from the movie by Lucasfilm. Luckily for the studio, they were able to coax J. J. Abrams back to helm the pic, after he’d steered The Force Awakens to become the third highest grossing film ever made. Despite the director being arguably the natural choice to wrap up the trilogy though, a subset of fans have apparently been left fuming by his appointment.
One in particular, Matt Vela, has been driven to create an online petition that calls for Lucasfilm to remove Abrams from Star Wars: Episode IX. Vela’s argument hinges on the criticism by some that Force Awakens was a “rip off” of A New Hope in its overly similar plot and character beats. He also references the studio’s initial claim that each of the new movies would come from a different director.
Here’s how Vela puts it:
“At the start of the new sequel trilogy, beginning with The Force Awakens, Lucasfilm and Disney promised a new director for each movie to promote a fresh new vision on every installment. With the hiring of J.J. Abrams to direct the upcoming Episode IX, Lucasfilm and Disney have both reneged on this promise.”
“Therefore, to prevent Star Wars Episode IX from becoming yet another rip off of the original trilogy (specifically, a rip off of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi), and for the good of the Star Wars brand, we demand that Kathleen Kennedy replace J.J. Abrams as director of the upcoming Episode 9 film.”
So, could this petition have any effect? Well, probably not, to be honest. Thus far, it’s earned just 80 fans and we’d imagine that it would need to be pushing at least 1 million signatures in order to even get on Lucasfilm’s radar.
Whatever your personal feelings about Abrams’ direction, you can see why the studio have decided to entrust the production to the safest pair of hands they could find. Not only that, but it would make the story of the trilogy feel like it’s come full circle. In the misquoted words of Kylo Ren, Abrams is set to finish what he started – whether the entirety of the fanbase likes it or not.
Star Wars: Episode IX arrives in cinemas on December 20th, 2019.
