JJ Abrams to write and direct Episode IX

It simply means cinematic universe. MCU, Marvel Cinematic Universe. It would unbound them from having to make everything fit all nice and tidy in a 3 movie sequence. They want to finish the Trilogy of Trilogies, but are unsure if that format is what they want to use beyond 2020.

 

Gross. Can we for one moment, not objectify the girl? Or any girl?

--- Double Post Merged, Sep 16, 2017, Original Post Date: Sep 16, 2017 ---

It's going to be unbearable...

 

I was disappointed when I heard. But then.
Wow.

The guy who relaunched star wars successfully being brought in to safely land it after production woes on all the films apart from TLJ makes perfect sense.

Also doesn't necessarily mean he'll play it safe on screen or in the script. He's heard all the criticisms about TFA. I'm sure he'll take them on board.

I'd also say JJ is the perfect guy to leave it with a door open ending for a follow up trilogy.

But with any luck it won't be a mad cliff hanger/ambiguous ending. He likes doing that a bit too much.

He caught the spirit and magic of Star Wars in TFA and that's almost impossible. More than happy to have him back to bring it home.

 

As long as he doesn't get ideas from this thread, we should be fine.

 

I would have put money down it was the Finn thread. Perhaps it's a good thing I don't gamble.

 

I read Rian somewhere saying he only given one direction. 'Here's where the story left off. Here's where it ultimately has to end up. Do what you want to get get it there'.

I can't find the exact quote but that's almost it 100%. And remembering Kasdan saying 'he's written some weird thing'. Suggests to me that Rian like JJ knows Star Wars and how to function within the framework of Star Wars and still make bold choices and take characters in strange directions.

Treverow was given an impossible task after Carries passing. He'd handed in his script then had to rewrite it. That's an unenviable task.

But it could also be that he and these others being fired are too intent on putting their own personal stamp and style on the film. You can't do that in Star Wars. It's why Nolan or Del Toro wouldn't really work as directors for a saga film but might in a standalone. It's why lord and miller didn't work.

LFL/KK are making decisions and changes in order to make the best films possible. Anyone saying its in 'crisis' isn't paying attention. It's far from crisis they're in. They're making the right decisions. Crisis would be if they allowed a L&M/Treverow production to hot the screen and the film is terrible. Question would be 'how did LFL/KK allow this to get made? Why weren't they keeping an eye on the production?!'

Makes total sense to bring in JJ for this. Could also be that Rians made such a left field weird dark film that they needed JJ for 9 to bring it back to center? Who knows?

Either way it's damn exciting that we have more Star Wars coming and I just hope I love The Last Jedi as much as I'm dying to see it.

 

If Rian Johnson was on the same thought track as J.J. Abrams, then I have no hope for "The Last Jedi". I hope something different emerges than what Abrams gave us.

Which does not make me feel that great about Disney's handling of the saga. Right now, they seemed to be better at handling stand alone films that movies that are a part of some series.


If it's really true that Abrams will also be writing or co-writing "Episode IX", then I really have nothing to look forward to in 2019.

 

Fully agreed. TLJ needs to be different and bring something new to the table. Being different and new does not mean taking the story in unexpected ways, being different and new means creating something that's not too reminiscent of the OT. In other words: It doesn't matter if Rey turns out to be a clone of Kylo and Snoke is Shmi Skywalker, as long as they continue to shove TIE-fighters, X-wings, the Falcon and other OT aesthetica in our faces they are not bringing anything new to the table.

Even though TFA was a bit of a lackluster, with Rogue One they definitely proved that they are able to create excellent capable movies that respect and fit into George Lucas's universe. So the capability is there, it's just that they chose to take risks with Rogue One while playing it safe with TFA. I still wish to this day that Disney had made Rogue One before TFA, then TFA might not have been such a complete ripoff.

Rogue One is excused because it takes place right before ANH, so it makes sense to have the exact same ships and stuff. Still they managed to give us new original planets such as Scarif and Ring of Kafreen.

 

I'd rather have a fresh JJ than a tired Rian Johnson, for a multitude of reasons. Not all of which pertain to the movie itself.

I wasn't thrilled when I first heard the news, nothing against him or TFA which I very much enjoy, just that I was hoping to see a different vision. Even though really after Trevorrow's firing, it was either going to be him or Rian.

But JJ's recent comments have me very much excited. I don't wanna get into conspiracies of what happened behind the scenes, but I do feel like JJ was bogged down by specific demands that the studio had. Now, he sounds excited to take these characters and this story into uncharted territory. That's all I could ask for.

 

J. J. Abrams: “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 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.” (December 6, 2017)

 

I.e., Johnson ruined the beautiful mystery and wonderful characters I had set up.

"Help us J.J. Abrams--you're our only hope."

 

JJ makes Force Awakens, sets up villains, story arcs and such that get almost thrown out in Episode 8 in some cases. Now after saying he won't come back, sees the film, feels that wasn't what he intended so he asks to come back? Or is it confirmed they asked him? Or maybe Disney felt this film would be divisive but is still good to them so they gave Rian the keys to the future and had JJ to come back to finish for a "safer" ending. Perhaps its a little of it all. I have issues with The Last Jedi but a upon a second viewing I liked it a lot more. Though, I am pretty happy JJ is coming back to do 9 as opposed to Rian.

 

Daisy Ridley: “Everyone was saying it was going to be Rian [Johnson to direct/write Episode IX] and everything, so I was genuinely quite surprised [when Abrams was announced] and was like ‘Oh my God!’ and I started crying immediately with three people in the office. And they were like, ‘What the **** 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.” (December 6, 2017) (ComingSoon - Daisy Ridley and John Boyega on Star Wars: The Last Jedi)

 

Yeah, hopefully Abrams told her not to listen to Rian Johnson's and Kylo Ren's bullbast during that scene. It looked to me like she was faking the "Nobody" line to protect herself, same in the elevator.

 

I really wish RJ was continuing the story. I have some deep rooted concerns about JJ - though I think this time round, he knows he has some making up to do and must do a better job than he did with TFA (which is probably why he signed on). At the same time, I am also willing to cut him a bit of slack as I get why TFA was made the way it was. I'm just concerned that JJ isn't that deep a filmmaker and won't be able to create something as rich story-wise or visually as RJ did.

 

A lot of people complained that the force awakens was to unoriginal and basically shoved all the blame on jj Abrams. I personally thought it was a great idea to start the sequel trilogy off by making it very similar to ANH. It not only gave the fans some classic star wars storylines and action, but put some archetypes in place so that we could kind of know more about the characters we had just been introduced to. This was even the case with bigger things like the resistance and the first order. TFA really did a good job at preparing the way for the other movies, as it gave fans a "real star wars movie", an element lacking from the prequels. I'm sure jj won't make episode IX as close to the original trilogy as TFA was. I am however worried about Chris Terrio. His work with Argo was impressive, but his involvment in flops like Batman v Superman and Justice League are definitely concerns of mine.

 

He should bring in Dave Fillioni. He “gets” Star Wars.

 

I mean, we want everyone to be happy, right?