JJ Abrams is the new director of Star Wars: Episode IX, Lucasfilm has announced.
He launched the new era of Star Wars series with The Force Awakens in 2015.
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said: “JJ delivered everything we could have possibly hoped for” in the earlier installment, and she was excited he was returning to “close out this trilogy”.
JJ Abrams replaces Colin Trevorrow, who dropped out of Episode IX last month.
Meanwhile the release has been delayed by six months, to December 2019.
The announcement was made on Twitter by Walt Disney Studios, which owns Lucasfilm, on September 8.
Chris Terrio will co-write the ninth installment with JJ Abrams. He won an Oscar for writing Argo in 2013 and his other scripts include Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the forthcoming Justice League.
Episode IX is expected to star Daisy Ridley and John Boyega.
Rian Johnson is directing the second in the current trilogy, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which will be released this December.
According to a Deadline report, Rian Johnson had declined an offer to take over Episode IX before JJ Abrams was approached.
Most Star Wars fans on Twitter welcomed JJ Abrams’ return to the franchise.
Colin Trevorrow, who directed Jurassic World, left the director’s chair because he and Lucasfilm had differing “visions”, the company said.
Lucasfilm has a reputation for ruthlessness when it comes to hiring and firing directors. In 2015, Fantastic Four‘s Josh Trank was dropped from directing a standalone Star Wars story.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller also left the Han Solo standalone movie with only a few weeks left in production, and were replaced by Ron Howard.
Director Colin Trevorrow has decided to leave Star Wars: Episode IX because he and Lucasfilm have differing “visions”.
Star Wars: Episode IX is expected to star Daisy Ridley and John Boyega and is due out in May 2019. Lucasfilm will now seek a replacement for Colin Trevorrow, who is best known for directing Jurassic World.
The director’s departure comes less than three months after a Han Solo spin-off also lost its directors.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were replaced by Ron Howard.
On September 5, a statement on the Star Wars website said: “Lucasfilm and Colin Trevorrow have mutually chosen to part ways on Star Wars: Episode IX.
“Colin has been a wonderful collaborator throughout the development process, but we have all come to the conclusion that our visions for the project differ. We wish Colin the best and will be sharing more information about the film soon.”
Jack Thorne – who wrote the script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – is reported to be working on the screenplay for Episode IX.
Lucasfilm has a reputation for ruthlessness when it comes to hiring and firing directors. In 2015, Fantastic Four‘s Josh Trank was dropped from directing a standalone Star Wars story.
According to Deadline, Rian Johnson, who is directing The Last Jedi (AKA Episode VIII, which is out this December), is top of the shortlist.
There are suggestions that JJ Abrams – who directed The Force Awakens (AKA Episode VII, out in 2015) – could step in.
Director JJ Abrams has unveiled the names of characters played by John Boyega, Oscar Isaac and Daisy Ridley in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
JJ Abrams confirmed the names via some old school trading cards, in a humorous nod to when the films were first released in the 1970s.
John Boyega’s card showed his character to be called Finn, with Daisy Ridley’s named Rey and Oscar Isaac’s known as Poe Dameron.
The football-like droid, seen in the recent trailer, was revealed as BB:8.
The trading cards, which were revealed to Entertainment Weekly, also feature a Sith warrior named Kylo Ren.
The seventh installment of the sci-fi saga is set about 30 years after the events of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which reunites original stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, is scheduled to be released in cinemas on December 18, 2015.
Two more films are planned as part of the latest Star Wars chapter.
The original Star Wars trilogy, released between 1977 and 1983, was envisioned by director George Lucas as the central chunk of a nine-movie cycle.
Disney is behind the forthcoming trilogy in the franchise following a deal which saw them buy Lucasfilm for more than $4 billion.
The scheduled 3D release of two episodes of the Star Wars franchise has been postponed to enable filmmakers to concentrate on the next installment in the series.
Lucasfilm confirmed that Star Wars: Episode II – Attack Of The Clones and Episode III – Revenge of the Sith would be delayed.
Last week Disney announced that Star Trek director JJ Abrams would direct the forthcoming movie, Episode VII.
The film is set for a 2015 release.
Disney bought Lucasfilm, the company behind Star Wars, from creator George Lucas last month for $4.06 billion.
The scheduled 3D release of two episodes of the Star Wars franchise has been postponed to enable filmmakers to concentrate on the next installment in the series
Episode I – The Phantom Menace was released in 3D last February and earned $22.4 million in the US in its opening weekend.
The original prequels were released between 1999 an 2005.
JJ Abrams directed the Star Trek reboot in 2009 and its upcoming sequel, Star Trek into Darkness, to be released May.
Lucas said he was the “ideal choice” to direct the seventh movie in the series – due out in 2015 – adding “the legacy couldn’t be in better hands”.
It will be scripted by Oscar-winning writer Michael Arndt.
Sci-fi director JJ Abrams will direct the seventh Star Wars film, Lucasfilm owner Walt Disney Co has announced.
Star Wars creator George Lucas said he was the “ideal choice” to direct the movie – due out in 2015 – adding “the legacy couldn’t be in better hands”.
It will be scripted by Oscar-winning writer Michael Arndt.
JJ Abrams, who co-created Lost and directed the Star Trek reboot, said he was “more grateful to George Lucas now than I was as a kid”.
In October, Disney announced it had bought Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion and was committed to three new films.
Former Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who will produce the films, said JJ Abrams was “the perfect director to helm this”.
“Beyond having such great instincts as a filmmaker, he has an intuitive understanding of this franchise – he understands the essence of the Star Wars experience,” she said in a statement.
JJ Abrams will direct the seventh Star Wars film
JJ Abrams, who has also directed films including Mission: Impossible III and Super 8, said in a 2009 interview with the Los Angeles Times that, “as a kid, Star Wars was much more my thing than Star Trek was”.
The original Star Wars trilogy – which consists of the original film in 1977, 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back and 1983’s Return of the Jedi – was always envisioned by George Lucas as the central chunk of a nine-movie cycle.
The films followed the fortunes of young hero Luke Skywalker, cocky pilot Han Solo and the feisty Princess Leia as they battled against the Galactic Empire.
A trilogy of Star Wars prequels – 1999’s The Phantom Menace, 2002’s Attack of the Clones and 2005’s Revenge of the Sith – followed.
Disney has previously said George Lucas would remain as a creative consultant on the series.
In October, George Lucas revealed he had written story treatments for the seventh, eighth and ninth installments which he would hand over to Kathleen Kennedy.
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