In an enormous new interview with Fast Company, Star Wars Episode IX director J.J. Abrams has laid out the entire saga of how he ended up helming the final installment in the Sequel Trilogy, and it sounds like he was in a very unenviable position, all things considered.
Indeed, Jurassic World‘s Colin Trevorrow had been working on the project for quite some time before he was fired, and who else was Lucasfilm going to turn to during the fallout other than the man who had relaunched the Star Wars franchise in the first place with The Force Awakens? But Abrams, upon getting the offer to direct Episode IX, certainly had his reservations:
So who managed to convince Abrams to return? His partner in crime, wife and Bad Robot co-CEO Katie McGrath:
But time was running out for Abrams to recreate Episode IX from scratch, a situation he was all too aware of. Luckily, he knew a guy:
As you would! But not only was Abrams tasked with building Episode IX into something special, he also had to deal with what director Rian Johnson had brought to the latest Star Wars trilogy in 2017’s The Last Jedi, and since Abrams didn’t think he’d be coming back to the franchise at all, he struggled with figuring out what his new installment should be:
Filming has now wrapped on Episode IX, and as Abrams and co plunge themselves into months of post-production on the movie, he’s starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel:
Read more about Star Wars Episode IX here.
