‘Star Wars’ Director Colin Trevorrow Teases ‘Episode 9’

We’re just a few months away from a new era of Star Wars, and while The Force Awakens has yet to hit theaters, Lucasfilm is already preparing for Episode 8 and Episode 9. Rian Johnson is in pre-production on the former, which begins filming next bring, while recently confirmed director Colin Trevorrow has revealed that he’s begun preparing for production on the latter — yes, already.

Trevorrow tweeted the following photo of a book bearing the Lucasfilm logo, along with the caption “Back to school”:

Lucasfilm has been carefully plotting out the extension of the Star Wars franchise, so it’s hardly surprising to see Trevorrow already diving in to the new era of films which will begin this December with J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens. Next year we’ll get the first in a new series titled Star Wars Stories, with Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One kicking off the anthology. Rian Johnson will follow with Episode 8, which will then be followed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s young Han Solo movie. And Trevorrow will close things out (for the time being) with Episode 9.

Josh Trank was previously tapped to direct an anthology film of his own, but parted ways with Lucasfilm sometime around Star Wars Celebration. That film is reportedly still in development and seeking a new director.

The new Star Wars trilogy story was developed by original trilogy writer Lawrence Kasdan, along with Michael Arndt and Simon Kinberg, and given just how epic the new trilogy is (and how crucial its success is to the future of the franchise), it makes sense for Trevorrow to be getting ready for Episode 9 this far out. But before he directs his Star Wars movie he’s working on a smaller film with his Safety Not Guaranteed collaborator Derek Connolly. That film is titled The Book of Henry and so far there have been very few details released about the film or its plot.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters on December 18, with Episode 8 arriving on May 26, 2017 and Episode 9 following in 2019.

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