J.J. Abrams to write and direct ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’

Eight days since Colin Trevorrow was fired from his role as writer and director of "Episode IX," Disney finally announced on Tuesday that his replacement will be J.J. Abrams, making him the only man besides George Lucas to have directed multiple entries in the series.

This is the third high-profile exit from a "Star Wars" director but the first time Lucasfilm has returned to a director – specifically the filmmaker who helped resurrect the franchise with 2015's "The Force Awakens." Abrams will co-write the film with screenwriter Chris Terrio, who won an Oscar for adapting "Argo," and it will have a new release date of December 20 2019. It is unknown how much of Trevorrow's material will be salvaged.

As the director of "The Force Awakens," Abrams rebooted "Star Wars" to largely glowing reviews from fans and more than $2 billion in box office. Abrams had said that would be his only film for the franchise, but he’s now been pulled back in.

Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy said that Abrams "delivered everything we could have possibly hoped for" on "The Force Awakens" and added "I am so excited that he is coming back to close out this trilogy."

"Star Wars: Episode IX" is the final installment in the new "main" Star Wars trilogy that began with Abrams' "The Force Awakens" in 2015 and will continue this December with director Rian Johnson's "The Last Jedi."

Lucasfilm has had a number of public fallouts with "Star Wars" directors over the past few years.

Earlier this year the young Han Solo spinoff film parted ways with director Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and swiftly replaced them with Ron Howard deep into production In 2015, the company fired director Josh Trank from work on another Star Wars spinoff. And extensive reshoots on "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" led to widespread speculation that director Gareth Edwards had been unofficially sidelined by Tony Gilroy.

News of Abrams' return was greeted warmly by fans on social media Tuesday. He hasn't directed or committing to directing another project since "The Force Awakens," and instead had been focused on producing.

"I'm very much enjoying taking a moment. Since I've done the show 'Felicity,' I've gone from project to project. So it's been 20 years since I haven't been prepping, casting, shooting, editing something," Abrams told The Associated Press in March.

That moment, however brief, is over. For Abrams, it's time to go back to the Millennium Falcon and that galaxy far, far away.

(AP)