Colin Trevorrow and his writing partner, Derek Connolly, will no longer be the only writers involved with the script for Star Wars: Episode 9, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Jack Thorne, a writer best known for his work on British television series including Skins and The Fades, will join the film to rewrite the script. Trevorrow and Connolly most recently started writing a script for the ninth movie based on a treatment that Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson had provided, according to the magazine.
Trevorrow will still direct the movie and, before speculation begins to build about what this could mean for Star Wars: Episode 9, bringing new writers on board this early into development isn’t out of the ordinary. With Trevorrow hard at work on the sequel to Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which he is co-writing, the director has quite a bit on his plate already. Polygon has reached out to Lucasfilm for a statement about the staffing update and will update if more information becomes available.
Trevorrow’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is set to open on June 22, 2018. Star Wars: Episode 9, the last installment that we know of in the main franchise, will be released on May 24, 2019. Without knowing what happens in The Last Jedi, it’s impossible to say for certain which actors will or won’t be returning for the movie. As The Hollywood Reporter points out, Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren) and Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron) are expected to reprise their roles for the ninth film. Lucasfilm previously confirmed that Carrie Fisher, the actress who played General Leia Organa and who died last December, will not have a role in the film.