Colin Trevorrow, the original director of Star Wars: Episode IX before being replaced by J.J. Abrams, recently admitted he’s had a hard time emotionally reconnecting with the galaxy far, far away, until now.
Trevorrow Says He’s Struggled to Engage With Disney Star Wars
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Trevorrow said it’s Andor that’s finally reignited his interest.
“It’s not that I don’t know it’s brilliant; I do know that,” Trevorrow said when asked if he’s watched Andor. “My son and I have both decided that we are going to watch all of Andor this summer. But I do have to be honest; it has been a struggle for me to engage with anything Star Wars-related just on an emotional level.”
Despite his distance, Trevorrow praised Andor and its creative team, crediting the show as the one that’s finally bringing him back in:
“So, to the team that made Andor, I guess I can say that you’re the ones who’ve finally brought me back in. I know that what they’ve done is extraordinary, and I can’t wait to watch it,” he said.
Fans Still Curious About Duel of the Fates
Trevorrow was famously removed from Episode IX after creative differences with Lucasfilm. His original version, Duel of the Fates, leaked online in 2020 and received a surprisingly positive reception from fans, many of whom still prefer it over what ended up being The Rise of Skywalker.
The Andor connection is fitting. Much like Trevorrow’s script, Andor has been praised for its grounded tone, mature storytelling, and emotional depth, everything fans felt was missing from the sequel trilogy.
What was Duel of the Fates about?
Duel of the Fates was Colin Trevorrow’s original script for Star Wars: Episode IX, written before he was removed from the project. Unlike The Rise of Skywalker, Trevorrow’s version didn’t resurrect Emperor Palpatine or retcon Rey’s heritage. Instead, Rey remained a nobody, struggling with her identity and what it means to be a Jedi in a galaxy torn by war. The story leaned heavily into the idea of legacy through action—not bloodline—and had Rey forge her own path, ultimately rejecting both the Sith and the old Jedi order.
Kylo Ren, on the other hand, fully embraces the dark side, refusing redemption. Haunted by Luke Skywalker’s Force ghost and obsessed with becoming more powerful, he searches for ancient Sith knowledge on a dead world and trains under a long-forgotten Sith master named Tor Valum. Meanwhile, the Resistance takes the fight to the First Order in a more grounded, gritty way, with much of the story focused on a citizens’ uprising on Coruscant, now an oppressed, industrial hellscape. The finale brings Rey and Kylo to Mortis—yes, the mythical Force planet from The Clone Wars—for a final battle that ends with Kylo’s death and Rey choosing a new, independent path.
What’s next for Colin Trevorrow?
Trevorrow produced Deep Cover which was released on Prime Video on Thursday. The flick is described as a fast-paced action comedy starring Bryce Dallas Howard as Kat, an improv comedy teacher beginning to question if she’s missed her shot at success. When an undercover cop (Sean Bean) offers her the role of a lifetime, she recruits two of her students (Orlando Bloom and Nick Mohammed) to infiltrate London’s gangland by impersonating dangerous criminals.
He also wrote and directed Halcyon, a new sci-fi series coming to Amazon, based on Christopher Long’s graphic novel Hiding In Time. The series is described as a paranoid sci-fi thriller in which the Witness Protection Program relocates families to various eras in time. The series unravels a conspiracy that emerges when this seemingly infallible system is breached.
Trevorrow is also developing an untitled conspiracy thriller at Paramount, described as set in the late 1980s, a local news reporter in Las Vegas uncovers information about military base in the Nevada desert known as Area 51.
