Trailer debuts for Independence Day: Resurgence and Star Trek Beyond coupled with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens means that it’s already turning out to be a stellar time for fans of sci-fi cinema. But for Disney and Lucasfilm, it represents the start of what they hope to be a long, successful and rejuvenated franchise under the astute eyes of J.J. Abrams, Rian Johnson and Colin Trevorrow, not to mention the scores of writers steering the Star Wars saga into uncharted territory.
As we edge closer and closer to the release of The Force Awakens, the directing trio talked more about how they’re guiding the franchise forward with /Film, which appears to be very much a collaborative effort across the board.
[zerg]For the uninitiated, it is Brick and Looper director Rian Johnson that will be taking the reins of Star Wars: Episode VIII, while Colin Trevorrow of Jurassic World fame is set to take point for Episode IX. Make no mistake, Disney is hatching a shared universe across the mainline releases – with the Anthology series branching out the lore in between each episode – and Abrams offered new insight into how the trio are gunning to create the best Star Wars trilogy to date.
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.
Part and parcel of Abrams’ contract means that he’ll serve as executive producer on Johnson’s Episode VIII, which will follow The Force Awakens and Rogue One in 2017. Here’s what the filmmaker had to share about his role across the franchise.
There were a handful of things we talked about that were going to be helpful to him. Some were very easy to do, and some things were things that I didn’t want to do for other reasons, but I tried to be as accommodating as I could. And it’s so cool to see what happens next in a way that only someone as talented as Rian could do.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens will jump-start Lucasfilm’s crown jewel for a new generation when Abrams’ blockbuster debuts on December 18 in North America. Stay tuned to We Got This Covered over the coming days when we’ll have our own verdict on Episode VII for you to enjoy. Until then, here is the latest slew of TV clips to pour over as we count down the hours.