Josh Trank’s behavior has delayed production for the “Star Wars” spinoff trilogy about Boba Fett.
There has been frequent news about Josh Trank’s “Fantastic Four” film. After the poor box office performance and Josh Trank blaming the studios, news began to surface about Josh Trank’s poor behavior on set. A few examples include refusing to associate with other production team members and “over-directing” the cast to the point of telling them when to blink. Well it turns out that this behavior has not only tarnished his name with Fox, but with Disney as well.
In June 2014, it was announced that Josh Trank would be taking the director’s chair for an upcoming Star Wars spinoff trilogy. While rumors circulated, it was eventually discovered that the trilogy would revolve around “Star Wars” fan favorite character, Boba Fett. Well according to Collider, Disney lost confidence in Trank after the news surfaced about his behavior on the “Fantastic Four” set. What was originally slated for a 2017 release has now been pushed back to 2020 due to the departure of Josh Trank. While the delay is a disappointment, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy claims that they still have a solid interest in Boba Fett.
“It’s still one of the stories that we absolutely want to tell,” she says. “There is a lot of innovative technology in and around what it is we’re doing with that story, so for a lot of reasons, we were comfortable postponing that. But we’re definitely still developing it… We’re trying to get to a point where we’re never rushing for anything.”
It turns out that Josh Trank’s poor behavior was not only present on the set of Fantastic Four but Disney also got preview of his attitude in April during the Star Wars Celebration event. Star Wars: Rogue One Director Gareth Edwards appeared at the event and Trank was supposed to appear alongside Edwards. Trank abruptly cancelled his appearance which was supposed to lead into a spectacular preview to be shown to the fans. It was noted that Josh Trank was supposed to reveal a teaser reel for the upcoming Boba Fett spinoff but due to his absence that was never shown and the slate was wiped clean.
The good news is that the Han Solo spinoff film has been pushed up to release on May 25, 2018 with a younger version of our favorite “Star Wars” smuggler. Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller will be taking the helm on this film as they tell the story of a late teens/early 20s version of Han Solo.
While it is unfortunate about Josh Trank’s behavior and what it has cost the fans, it does seem like Disney has a very strong recovery plan for these types of situations. I’m sure that fans will still be happy with a Han Solo film to satiate their appetite while the details of Boba Fett get worked out.