WATCH: JJ Abrams says the Stars Wars sequel trilogy should have had ‘a plan’

No matter how you feel about the Star Wars sequel trilogy (loved the first one, hated the second one, can barely even recall the third one), one thing that everyone will likely agree with is that there was no over-arching plan for the trilogy.

We all know the story by now –  JJ Abrams was brought in for The Force Awakens with the task of bringing Star Wars back to the fans and to pull in the next generation of fans and, well, he pretty much did it.

Writing with Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt, Abrams crafted a movie that, sure it veered close to copying A New Hope, but reintroduced the Star Wars universe and gave us a bunch of exciting new characters that the fandom loved – and never let anyone tell you differently, the fans loved Rey, Finn and Poe in this movie, heck I remember taking my daughter to buy a Rey figure on the way to the cinema – and, while he wasn’t set to make the next two movies in the trilogy, he left an outline for where the story was going.

However, Kathleen Kennedy, riding on the back of one of the successful movies of all time, decided to bring in Rian Johnson and allow him to totally dismiss what Abrams planned and to go in a whole new direction, not just undoing Abbrams’ work but also everything that went before in Star Wars lore.

It was a disaster. Such a big disaster that after the movie came out, JJ Abrams was brought back to make the third movie, The Rise of Skywalker which is a lot better than Johnson’s abomination, but is still far from the magic we hoped/wanted/deserved as Abrams, in a effort to bring the story back to his original plan, pretty much erased the previous movie from existence, resulting in rushed ideas and storylines and some, frankly, bizarre choices.

It was a bold effort for sure… but ultimately, the trilogy which started on such a high note, went out with a whimper that almost left the saga on its knees – but was luckily saved by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau and The Mandalorian.

However, Abrams makes no secret of why the new trilogy failed and Star Wars is now being massively re-envisioned at Disney/Lucasfilm.

“Having a plan, I have learned – in some cases the hard way – is the most critical thing, because otherwise, you don’t know what you’re setting up. You don’t know what to emphasise,” Abrams says.

“Because if you don’t know the inevitable of the story, you’re just as good as your last sequence or effect or joke or whatever, but you want to be leading to something inevitable.”

Now, I’m not blaming Abrams at all – I reserve that for Kennedy and Jonson – but I’d like to think that the new trilogy having a plan would have seemed like a good idea from the beginning.

We know, as said above, that Abrams DID have a plan, so it has to be left at the doorstep of Kennedy for the disaster that the trilogy ultimately became. I honestly adored The Force Awakens but I can’t watch it now knowing how horrendously the story turns out. Maybe that’ll change in the future… but I really doubt it.

Let me know what you think about Abrams’ thoughts and watch the cul interview below:

Source: Collider