After failing to appear at a Star Wars Celebration panel last month due to the “flu”, it has been confirmed today that Chronicle director Josh Trank is no longer set to direct one of the Star Wars anthology movies.
Before we get to the statement released by Lucasfilm and Trank, here’s the scoop on what’s thought to be the real reason for his departure. The Hollywood Reporter states that the flu story was nonsense, and Disney asked the filmmaker not to attend the panel he was set to host alongside Rogue One’s Gareth Edwards.
X-Men writer and producer Simon Kinberg has played a key role in helping Disney develop Star Wars Rebels and the Anthology movie Trank was set to direct, but Kinberg apparently got cold feet about working with him again. Why? Well, both he and Fox butted heads with Trank during production of Fantastic Four, but no further specifics are revealed other than both parties are “unhappy with Trank’s performance.” Oh dear!
Trank returning for Fantastic Four 2 seems slim then, while most fanboys are hoping the reboot will fail so that the rights will revert to Marvel Studios. Kevin Feige would love to get his hands on those characters!
It’s now thought that the untitled Star Wars Anthology movie won’t be released until 2019 instead of 2018.
Here’s the statement released by Trank: “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.”
Lucasfilm VP of Development Kiri Hart said “It was a privilege to collaborate with Josh. We are grateful for the energy and love of Star Wars that he brought to the process, and we wish him all the best.”
