On Tuesday night, THR reported that British screenwriter Jack Thorne has been tapped by Lucasfilm for a rewrite on Star Wars: Episode IX. Since this is Star Wars we’re talking about, fans immediately blew the news out of proportion Death Star style and assumed the film was in dire straits. Calm down, deep breaths, everything is going to be okay. Though the ideal pre-production process does not involve any creative speed bumps, we can all rest easy because this is just how Lucasfilm rolls.
Thorne, who wrote the upcoming movie Wonder starring Julia Roberts and Jacob Tremblay and helped with the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, will tackle the script co-written by director Colin Trevorrow and his writing partner Derek Connolly. At this point, THR says it’s unclear how much doctoring needs to be done.
But it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. Though December’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi was written completely by director Rian Johnson, every other new-age Star Wars project has seen some type of behind the scenes shakeup and been no worse for the wear. Lucasfilm booted Oscar-winning scriptwriter Michael Arndt off of the must-win Star Wars: The Force Awakens with no ill effects. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story underwent massive reshoots overseen by director Tony Gilroy rather than primary director Gareth Edwards and was immediately embraced by the fandom. Hell, the Han Solo movie just fired its directors several months into production and is still shaping up nicely.
Lucasfilm, under the watchful eye (blessed be the fruit) of the Mouse House, has become too big to fail. The studio is a well-oiled machine run efficiently by president Kathleen Kennedy, who knows a thing or two about delivering well-constructed and crowd-pleasing blockbusters. They are willing to tinker to fine tune and spend to produce. It’s worked so far.
We get why Lucasfilm may have felt the need to get involved. Trevorrow’s indie Safety Not Guaranteed was a breath of fresh air and Jurassic World made a dino-load of money, but neither film is without its critics. And Trevorrow’s latest feature, The Book of Henry, was absolutely skewered with lightsaber-like precision. Perhaps the studio just wants to make sure Episode IX remains on track.
So don’t worry, fellow Padawans and Stormtroopers. This is all just par the course for Lucasfilm. You’ll have your blue milk and drink it too. You’ll see.
