Back when Star Wars: Episode 8 –  The Last Jedi was new and controversial it was already planned for Colin Trevorrow to pick up the next chapter and direct Star Wars: Episode 9. However, as things progressed it was announced that Trevorrow had left the project due to the usual creative differences and suddenly Episode 9 was looking for a new director.

Eventually, as you all know it was announced that JJ Abrams would be back to helm Episode 9 after initially only planning to do The Force Awakens. But Abrams did not initially jump at the chance to step back on board the Star Wars train. Speaking with Fast Company recently in an extensive interview talks about his initial reaction to say no, and why he changed his mind.

“I wasn’t supposed to be there. I wasn’t the guy, ya’ know? I was working on some other things, and I had something else that I was assuming would be the next project, if we’d be so lucky. And then Kathy Kennedy called and said, “Would you really, seriously, consider coming aboard?” And once that started, it all happened pretty quickly. The whole thing was a crazy leap of faith. And there was an actual moment when I nearly said, “No, I’m not going to do this.” I was trepidatious to begin with, getting involved, because I love Star Wars so much and felt like it was . . . . It was almost, on a personal level, a dangerous thing to get too close to something that you care that much about. And yet, with Force Awakens, I feel like we managed to introduce these new characters—for some people, new actors—and continue a story in a way that I thought had heart and humanity and humor and surprise. Though of course I’m aware that there are critics of that movie, it felt to me like we dodged a bullet. Like we got in there, we got to do something. And I left loving Star Wars as much as I did when I got there. Like, somehow, it was on a personal, selfish level something I was really happy to have done. Not just excited about doing but happy to have done. And to ask to have that happen again, I felt a little bit like I was playing with fire. Like, why go back? We managed to make it work. What the hell am I thinking? And there was a moment when I literally said, “No,” and Katie said, “You should do this.” And my first thought was, has she met someone? And then I thought, she’s usually right about stuff. And when she said it, I think that she felt like it was an opportunity to bring to a close this story that we had begun and had continued, of course. And I could see that even though the last thing on my mind was going away and jumping back into that, especially with the time constraints that we were faced with . . . .”

When asked about what the time constraints were, Abrams said.

“Because they had announced release dates, and everything works backwards. To have no script and to have a release date and have it be essentially a two-year window when you’re saying (to yourself), you’ve got two years from the decision to do it to release, and you have literally nothing . . . . You don’t have the story, you don’t have the cast, you don’t have the designers, the sets. There was a crew, and there were things that will be worked on for the version that preceded ours, but this was starting over. And because this was such a mega job, I knew at the very least I needed a cowriter to work on this thing, but I didn’t know who that cowriter would be. There was nothing. So the first thing I did was reach out to a writer who I’ve admired for years, Chris Terrio, who I didn’t really know, to say, “Listen, would you want to write Star Wars with me?” And he screamed.”

Interesting that everything was so rushed and Lucasfilm were left in a weird position having had Carrie Fisher sadly pass away far too young and a release date already set.

I personally didn’t like Jurassic World and therefore wasn’t keen on Trevorrow making this movie as a result. Saying that, I also wasn’t all that impressed by Abrams’ The Force Awakens. For me, it was far too safe, which perhaps Lucasfilm needed and the movie did spectacularly well as a result, but it all felt too much like a copypasta of A New Hope for me.

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I’ll be interested to see if Abrams was the right man to finish off this story, because traditionally Abrams has been about great ideas that don’t seem to have a great ending, I am sure all Star Wars fans are hoping this is a trend that will buck with Star Wars: Episode 9. I guess we are all expecting to have our first official information on this movie during the Episode IX panel at Star Wars Celebration this Friday, so stay tuned to LRM on Friday for any information we can share.

What do you think of Abrams comments, was he the right person to direct Star Wars: Episode 9?  Share your thoughts on this sequel trilogy in the usual spot below.

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SOURCE: Fast Company

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