J.J. Abrams Approach To Star Wars Was Because He Rebooted Other Franchises
Around the release date of Star Trek Into Darkness in 2013, J.J. Abrams was busy promoting the new Star Trek sequel film. But remember, this was also around when we was getting to work on Star Wars: Episode VII. It was a busy time for sure. In an interview with BBC News, Abrams talks about why he initially turned down the Star Wars gig.
J.J. Abrams said he didn’t want to be a director known for just rebooting film franchises. His feature film debut in 2006 was the third installment of the Mission: Impossible film series, and then he followed it up with the Star Trek reboot in 2009, and then it was going to be Star Wars: Episode VII in 2015. In the end, Abrams had to listen to his “gut” and take the Star Wars directing job when Disney and Lucasfilm offered him the position.
It’s an interesting window into the mind of an ultra-creative, especially when it comes to telling their own story. J.J. Abrams said at the time, “And then Star Wars came along. It was one of those things where Star Wars felt like one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that forced me to stop and reconsider whatever the rulebook was.”
J.J. Abrams also elaborated on how he would approach Episode VII when he started working on the film. Abrams didn’t want his “geeky fan-boy” side to emerge while he was directing a Star Wars movie, but he also didn’t want to make Episode VII look and feel like Star Trek Into Darkness.
Around this idea J.J. Abrams continued, “It’s just about approaching it from as authentic a place as possible, and not trying to apply what you believe or think, as much as trying to filter everything and get at it from the core of the characters. [It should be] what you deeply want to see, never what you assume the fans might like.”
J.J. Abrams went on, ‘To me they are such wildly disparate universes — the back story, the tone, the mood, certainly the history [and] the characters — that I’m in no way worried.’
It was a pretty monumental time in moviemaking to have one director take on both of these iconic franchises is such a short window. Frankly, it was pretty unheard of and almost stands alone historically. It makes sense why J.J. Abrams would have been hesitant at the time, especially considering if it was going to put him in a box both creatively and career-wise.
But saying no to Star Wars would have been insane, even for J.J. Abrams so it’s easy to see why he went forward with it, even if there were some reservations.
