J.J. Abrams on collaborating with Rian Johnson; says Ep. 8 script is amazing

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

With STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS opening in theaters this week, it's easy to forget that production will begin on EPISODE VIII next month! Of course, director Rian Johnson has been hard at work for the past year, steeped in (mostly) pre-production for the next installment. While Johnson will be credited as writer and director for EPISODE VIII, he certainly has had a fair share of help from Abrams' end. Now that Abrams directorial duties are just about wrapped up, he spoke to Slash Film regarding his collaboration with Rian and what he thinks of the finished script for EPISODE VIII!

When Rian, who I admire enormously and adore, came on board, we met and talked with him about all the things we were working on and playing with, and he as a spectacular writer and director has taken those things and has written an AMAZING script that I think will be an incredible next chapter, some of which incorporating things we were thinking of and other things are things we could never of dreamed of.

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 its so cool to see what happens next in a way that only someone as talented as Rian could do.

From the sound of it, everyone involved is making sure that the passing of the torch goes down as smooth as possible. Kathleen Kennedy also stated that Colin Trevorrow will probably end up having a more involved collaboration with Rian Johnson on EPISODE IX. Sounds good in theory, but fans wont really have an idea of where this story is going until the end of this week. Hopefully Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan have given those two filmmakers a great jumping-off point!

STAR WARS: EPISODE VIII is scheduled to hit theaters on May 26, 2017.