J.J. Abrams had graag Star Wars: Episode VIII geregisseerd

Eerder werd bekend dat Rian Johnson (Looper, The Brothers Bloom) de regie op zich zal nemen van Star Wars: Episode VIII, de titelloze opvolger van Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Op dat moment werkte regisseur J.J. Abrams aan Episode VII. Hij heeft er bij nader inzien toch spijt van dat hij het achtste deel niet gaat regisseren. Dat vertelt zijn goede vriend acteur Greg Grunberg:

“He read it and said something he never, ever says. 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], but I never hear him express regret like that.”

Overigens schijnt regisseur Johnson intensief samen te werken met uitvoerend producent Abrams aan het eerstvolgende deel in de Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World) maakt het negende deel. Eerder deze maand zei de regisseur dat hij de deur open wilde houden voor Johnson:

“No, because at that point we were sitting down and talking about where this might go, even as early on as with Michael Arndt. We were sort of plotting out, because obviously if you know up front that you’re building the pacing inside a trilogy structure, we needed to have some sense of where this saga was going without locking in on things and leaving room for creative development. But we had to have some sense of where we were going.  We don’t write a treatment but there are countless times we came up with something and said ‘oh, this would be so great for Episode VIII!’ or ‘Thats what we could get to in IX!’ It was just that kind of forward moving story. But we knew this had to neither be a backwards moving nostalgic trip only nor a beginning of a movie without a satisfying conclusion, and that was part of the balancing act — embracing what we have inherited and using that where and whenever possible to tell a story that hasn’t been seen yet. We also knew that certain things were inevitable in our minds but that didn’t mean it would be inevitable for whoever came in next.”

Star Wars: The Force Awakens wordt geregisseerd door J.J. Abrams en draait nu in de bioscoop. Hoofdrollen zijn er voor Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver,Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie en Max von Sydow.