"It's funny, I saw that, and it was on a day where I was at Lucasfilm giving this big speech to everyone about how we want to channel the invention and just the raw creativity and the boldness that George brought to these films, and not being afraid that we're going to embarrass ourselves by doing something that might be crazy," the Jurassic World director told ET.

He continued, "When George Lucas made Star Wars, a lot of people thought it was crazy. When you try to pitch what that movie's about — if you've never heard of Star Wars before, you say, ‘Here's a character. His father's part robot, but he can also do magic. And there's a guy who can fly in a spaceship. He's got a dog for a friend!' — it sounds insane. But it's the greatest story ever told. I just want to embrace that kind of invention and creativity that he brought to it."

It should be noted that the petition's creator, Brazilian Star Wars fan Yuri Luiz, makes clear in the petition's introduction that he has no problems with Trevorrow per se; it's just that "he's not the right guy to direct Star Wars: Episode IX" while Lucas is available, in his opinion.

Of course, given Lucas's recent comments about the current state of the franchise — comments that he has since apologized for — his return to a galaxy far, far away seems very unlikely anytime soon.