Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow confirmed for Star Wars 9

Disney has confirmed the next piece in its Star Wars puzzle, with the announcement that Colin Trevorrow will fill the director’s chair for Episode IX. The news was broken at LucasFilm’s D23 panel, with the film slated for release in 2019.

Having steered Jurassic World to a staggering box office performance over the summer, Trevorrow had long been the bookies' favourite to be given a crack at the Star Wars franchise, and so it has proved, with Kathleen Kennedy waxing lyrical about the director’s qualities in the official press release.

“Colin is someone I’ve been interested in working with ever since I saw Safety Not Guaranteed,” says Kennedy. “The power of that film paired with the enormous success of Jurassic World speaks volumes about his abilities both as a storyteller and skilled filmmaker. We are thrilled to have such an incredible talent as Colin join our family and step into the Star Wars universe.”

Meanwhile, Trevorrow himself sounds as excited as you might expect. “This is not a job or an assignment,” says the director. “It is a seat at a campfire, surrounded by an extraordinary group of storytellers, filmmakers, artists and craftspeople. We’ve been charged with telling new stories for a younger generation because they deserve what we all had - a mythology to call their own. We will do this by channelling something George Lucas instilled in all of us: boundless creativity, pure invention and hope.”

No exact release date has been confirmed as yet, although the film is expected to arrive in December 2019. In the meantime, we’ve got Star Wars: The Force Awakens to look forward to when it hits cinemas in the UK and US on December 18 later this year.

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George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.