This weekend’s Star Wars Celebration event should be a big one. Both LucasFilm’s Kathleen Kennedy and director J.J. Abrams will be in attendance for a special panel about Episode IX. But believe it or not, at one point J.J. Abrams says it actually didn’t look like he would be back.
In a recent interview with Fast Company, the director spoke about his return to Star Wars. While Abrams directed The Force Awakens, he admitted that he almost turned down Episode IX.
“There was an actual moment when I nearly said, ‘No, I’m not going to do this,'” said Abrams. “I was trepidatious to begin with, getting involved, because I love Star Wars so much and felt like it was…it was almost, on a personal level, a dangerous thing to get too close to something that you care that much about. I left loving Star Wars as much as I did when I got there. Like, somehow, it was on a personal, selfish level something I was really happy to have done. Not just excited about doing but happy to have done. And to ask to have that happen again, I felt a little bit like I was playing with fire.”
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However, Kennedy was eventually able to convince Abrams to return.
“There was a moment when I literally said, ‘No,’ and Katie said, ‘You should do this,'” recalled Abrams. “And my first thought was, has she met someone? And then I thought, she’s usually right about stuff. When she said it, I think that she felt like it was an opportunity to bring to a close this story that we had begun and had continued, of course. And I could see that even though the last thing on my mind was going away and jumping back into that, especially with the time constraints that we were faced with.”
Star Wars: Episode IX hits theaters on December 20. What do you think about J.J. Abrams coming back? Let us know in the comments below!
