Director J.J. Abrams recently sat down with Vanity Fair for an exclusive interview and he gave a lot of information regarding the filming and development of the upcoming "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens." The director alluded to what fans can expect and what have to be left out of the film and on the cutting board.
One of the things that Abrams explained was that "Star Wars" creator George Lucas had very little to do with the final product. He pointed out that the original story draft from Lucas involves very young characters and the team wanted to step away from these ideas because they are too reminiscent of the young Anakin in "The Phantom Menace."
When Lucas was interviewed by Stephen Colbort, as cited by The Atlantic, the "Star Wars" creator stated, "I'm excited. I have no idea what they're doing."
This doesn't mean that the new movie won't have any throwbacks to the older films. According to the Vanity Fair cover story, Abrams explained that they pushed for more references to the original trilogy instead of the prequel trilogy, particularly because "The Force Awakens" is set after the events of the older films.
Abrams did state that he tried inserting the bones of Jar Jar Binks in one of the desert locations as an inside joke but this idea was eventually scrapped. The director explained that they didn't want to just create a film filled with references to what came before. Instead, they focused on creating a good movie worthy of the "Star Wars" moniker.
When asked about his experience in handling the film as both a writer-director and as a hardcore fan of the series, Abrams stated that being able to show the work to music composer John Williams, who came out of retirement to craft the score for this film, was arguably the most surreal experience he had thus far.
"Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens" opens in theaters nationwide on Dec. 18.
