J.J. Abrams Claims He Had No Intentions of Returning to Direct Star Wars Episode IX

Sorry Colin Trevorrow, J.J. Abrams is not the architect of your pain. Though it seems a little too convenient that Abrams had an opening in his busy directorial schedule right around the time that Lucasfilm gave Trevorrow the boot as writer and director of Star Wars Episode IX, the former claims it was all coincidental. 

In a new piece in Rolling Stone, Abrams admits that he may not have intended to return to the franchise so soon, but the second the possibility was dangled in front of him, he was all in...

"I had no intention to return... But when the opportunity presented itself to finish a story that we had begun with these new characters, to tell the last chapter of their story, it felt like there was a chance to do it in a way where we could go beyond, and do better than we did in (Episode) Seven. I learned so much in that movie and I saw that this was a chance to sort of realize something that we hadn't quite achieved – and part of that was it was simply the beginning of these new characters and their story. The opportunity to sort of take what we had learned, to take the feeling of who these characters are and what they are and give them a final chapter that felt in the spirit of what we begun? It was too delicious of an opportunity to pass up." 

I know a lot of people didn't like Episode VII because of Abrams' over-reliance on rehashing familiar story beats, but I guess I was just expecting it. He had to win back a generation that had abandoned Star Wars because it had become a bunch of drivel. Of course he was gonna play it safe. I do think, however, he's got something to prove now. I think he's coming back with a chip on his shoulder and he's gonna show the fanboy haters that he's more than just a guy who's great at repackaging things. This is his chance to prove it, once and for all.

One person who was over the moon about Abrams returning to round out the trilogy is Daisy Ridley. Everyone's favorite new force user thought—as many of us did—that Rian Johnson would step in and do Episode IX...

"Everyone was saying it was going to be Rian and everything, so I was genuinely quite surprised," she says, "and was like 'Oh my God!' and I started crying immediately with three people in the office. And they were like, 'What the fuck just happened?' So I emailed J.J. saying, 'Oh my God I am crying.' And he goes, 'Oh my God, me too.' And then we had a conversation a few days later and we stay in touch. But we stayed in touch the whole time anyway."

Who knows at this point where this all ends up. I can't get too excited for Episode IX when The Last Jedi is so tantalizingly close to being seen. Then again, that's just me. 

Header image via Fortune