We don’t know why J.J. Abrams turned down the chance to direct the entire new Star Wars trilogy. He has previously said he doesn’t want to be known as a director who just does sequels, so perhaps he has a couple of original movie ideas he wants to pursue. So, for Episode VIII and IX, Rian Johnson (Looper) and Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World) will be assuming helming duties.
A couple of days ago, the franchise’s latest mega-star Daisy Ridley said she had read the script for VIII and said it was “very good.” Well, it turns out that the script is so good that Abrams now regrets not agreeing to do all three movies.
It hasn’t come directly from Abrams’ mouth, but his close friend and actor Greg Gunberg, who plays pilot Snap Wexley in The Force Awakens spoke with the Washington Post about Episode VIII and, more specifically, how Abrams was feeling about not directing it.
“He read it and said something he never, ever says,” Grunberg, who plays pilot Snap Wexley in the new film, tells The Post’s Comic Riffs. “He said: ‘It’s so good, I wish I were making it.’
“He may have said something one time on ‘Lost,’ with Damon [Lindelof, the co-creator],” continues Grunberg, whose credits on Abrams series include “Lost” and “Felicity,” “but I never hear him express regret like that.”
Abrams was reportedly offered more than one Star Wars film, though he declined to return for the sequel and Lucasfilm decided to hire a different director for each subsequent installment, which means we’ll be served up with three entirely different cinematic styles (which could be glorious or could be disastrous). Fan reactions have been mostly positive-to-mixed on The Force Awakens. The consensus seems to be that Abrams did a solid job of introducing new characters and a new adventure, while honoring the classic characters and George Lucas’ original trilogy.
Fans have been hesitant about embracing the idea of Rian Johnson, basically because he hasn’t done much apart from Looper, but these quotes from both Ridley and Gunberg have ramped up the excitement considerably for something pretty special.
Star Wars: Episode 8 hits theaters on May 26, 2017.
Source: Squareeyed
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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