After the departure of Colin Trevorrow, J.J. Abrams, who directed Star Wars The Force Awakens, stepped up to direct Star Wars Episode IX and recently sat down with the BBC for a radio interview. During the interview, Abrams explains how his approach to Episode IX will be very different compared to the approach he took for Episode VII, adding that IX will take the franchise in a new direction:
BBC: Both of these series that you’re involved with – Star Trek and Star Wars – they change people’s lives, don’t they? Little boys, little girls end up saying “That’s what I want to do. That’s where I wanna be.”
J.J. Abrams: Well, it’s certainly something that I’m aware of now working on Episode IX – coming back into this world after having done Episode VII. I feel like we need to approach this with the same excitement that we had when we were kids, loving what these movies were. And at the same time, we have to take them places that they haven’t gone, and that’s sort of our responsibility. It’s a strange thing – Michael’s worked on things like Planet of the Apes and Star Trek and Star Wars, and these are the things of dreams. Yet we can’t just revel in that; we have to go elsewhere.
Following on from the BBC interview, a recent Reddit thread was posted by one individual who claimed to have met with Abrams and Episode IX co-writer Chris Terrio, who during their conversation alluded to the fact that the ninth Star Wars film would heavily reference the prequel trilogy.
However, after the individual in question clarified that anything they originally said should not be taken as confirmation we have removed this fake news.
Thanks to SWNN for the news!