In August 2015, Colin Trevorrow was announced as the director and co-writer of Star Wars: Episode IX, now known as The Rise of Skywalker. Then The Book of Henry (the best bad movie in recent memory) happened. To be fair, that’s not the reason Lucasfilm and Trevorrow “mutually” parted ways (reportedly due to producer/overseer Kathleen Kennedy growing “unhappy with his work on the script”), but it probably didn’t help. Anyway, J.J. Abrams took over directorial duties from Trevorrow, who also won’t receive screenplay credit on Skywalker.
But a small part of his Episode IX vision is canon.
Any self-proclaimed Star Wars nerd would recognize most of the ships at Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland — an X-wing, the Millennium Falcon, etc. — but not all of them. The First Order Tie Echelon didn’t appear in The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi, and it probably won’t be in The Rise of Skywalker, either. But according to Collider, Trevorrow helped design the ship (pictured here) while he was still attached to Episode IX. “The Imagineering team asked us to develop a new ship for the park while we were designing the film,” the Jurassic World 3 director explained. “I took it pretty seriously — it’s not every day you get to be a part of something like that. They let me see what they were working on, so I got to see what Galaxy’s Edge was going to be. I think what they’ve created is incredible. It’s such an immersive experience.”
When asked what sort of sequence the Tie Echelon would have been involved in, Trevorrow, who described the ship as a “hybrid of designs from [episodes] VII and VIII,” answered, “I’m pretty sure you know the answer to that.” Which is to say, no comment. But, he continued, “I’m just proud to have been a part of it. I love that ship. Put my ashes in it.” That’s not the worst burial ground idea. It beats being inside a margarita glass from another famous park.
(Via Collider)