Star Wars: The Last Jediis looking more and more like an anomaly in the newKathleen KennedyLucasfilm era.Rian Johnsonsigned on to write and direct that film whileStar Wars: The Force Awakenswas in production, and withThe Last Jedi’s release now only a few months away, Johnson remains the only credited writer on the film—and not for nothing, but there have been no murmurs about a new director or creative voice being brought in for post-production. That’s not the case withStar Wars: Episode IX, which is now getting a new writer ahead of the film’s January production start-date.
PerTHR,Jack Thorne—the scribe behind the upcomingJulia Roberts/Jacob TremblaydramaWonder—has been tapped to work on the script forStar Wars 9.Colin Trevorrowis still onboard to direct, but it appears that the script forEpisode IXthat he co-wrote with hisSafety Not GuaranteedandJurassic Worldco-writerDerek Connollywill not go untouched. When Trevorrow signed on to directStar Wars 9, it was announced that he’d also be co-writing the film with Connolly. But Trevorrow’s most recent filmThe Book of Henry, which was written byGregg Hurwitz, suffered a savage critical reception this summer, leading many fans to doubt his ability to bring this newStar Warstrilogy to a close in a satisfying way.
Thorne is an English writer and producer who’s worked on British series likeThe FadesandThe Last Panthersand films likeHow I Live NowandA Long Way Down, but he’s probably most known for writing the stage playHarry Potter and the Cursed Child, based on a story by Thorne,J.K. Rowling, andJohn Tiffany. He’s also working on the Warner Bros. graphic novel adaptationSandmanand wrote the aforementionedWonder, which itself is based on a book. So Thorne is no stranger to writing characters audiences have seen before as well as material that’s in the fantasy or sci-fi realm.
This likely comes as welcome news to fans who were worried about Trevorrow handling this crucial installment of theStar Warssaga.Safety Not Guaranteedwas a successful indie andJurassic Worldwas a massive hit, but those films are not without their detractors, and Trevorrow doesn’t exactly carry the same clout as Johnson orJ.J. Abrams.
But in truth, this news of Thorne taking a pass at theStar Wars 9script is par for the course.Michael Arndtworked onThe Force Awakensscript for a year before being given the boot, at which point Abrams andLawrence Kasdantook over scripting duties.Rogue Onewent througha couple of screenwriters and uncredited script doctors, not to mention well-publicized reshoots. And Lucasfilm just recently fired theuntitledHan SolomoviedirectorsPhil LordandChris Millerthree weeks before filming was supposed to wrap, replacing them withRon Howard. So again,The Last Jediis very much the outlier here, and really the main takeaway from thisStar Wars 9news is that Lucasfilm wants this movie to be the best it can possibly be.
The untitled trilogy-capper is still set for release on July 19, 2025, and filming is now eyeing a January 2018 start-date. As Thorne gets to work on the script, we should start hearing about casting news within the next few months.
