There’s no telling what happened behind the scenes here, but it may have been the reason Josh Trank wasn’t at Star Wars Celebration (he claimed he was sick, which I have no reason to doubt, really). The long and short of it is this: Trank will no longer be directing the second Star Wars Anthology film. Here’s what Trank had to say on StarWars.com:
“After a year of having the incredible honor of developing with the wonderful and talented people at Lucasfilm, I’m making a personal decision to move forward on a different path. I’ve put a tremendous amount of thought into this, and I know deep down in my heart that I want to pursue some original creative opportunities. That said, the Star Wars universe has always been one of my biggest influences, and I couldn’t be more excited to witness its future alongside my millions of fellow Star Wars fans. I want to thank my friends Kathleen Kennedy, Kiri Hart, Simon Kinberg, and everyone at Lucasfilm and Disney for the amazing opportunity to have been a part of this. May the Force be with you all.”
Trank’s recently been the target of fanboy flak because the upcoming Fantastic Four seems to be pissing nerds off for some reason. I’m sure his detractors will be pleased, but I’m pretty bummed. I think Star Wars through his lens could’ve been really cool.
The film is still in development at Lucasfilm, and I doubt it will remain directorless for very long.