Well, this is a bit awkward. Star Wars Episode IX director Colin Trevorrow is responding to petitions calling for his firing from the film.

A petition started by fiercely loyal Star Wars fans demands Trevorrow be sacked in favour of franchise creator George Lucas.

Trevorrow has been silent on the fan backlash until this past weekend, when he addressed the 21,000 fans who have backed his ouster.

"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," Entertainment Tonight quotes the Jurassic World filmmaker as saying.

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Trevorrow went on to stress that he is fully committed to embrace the "invention and creativity" that George Lucas brought to Star Wars.

"When George Lucas made Star Wars, a lot of people thought it was crazy," he explained. "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."

Recently, it was reported The Force Awakens' JJ Abrams was blown away by writer-director Rian Johnson's Episode VIII screenplay and even had regrets about leaving the franchise.

Rian is staying on board for Episode IX as a writer to ensure a smooth transition.

Episode VIII opens on May 26, 2017, while Episode IX follows in 2019.

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