Why director JJ Abrams initially turned down Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens
Talk about a bold career move.
When JJ Abrams was offered the opportunity to direct Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he initially turned it down to avoid becoming “the guy who does sequels”.
The film, is already slated to become the UK’s highest-grossing film just two days after its release, but Abrams nearly missed out on the chance, he revealed in The Time's Magazine, telling Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy that the project wasn’t for him:
When Kathy called I did something I don’t normally do, which is look at my career. I really did feel like ‘that sounds like the wrong idea’.
His wife Katie McGrath managed to persuade him to change his mind, however, which we suspect he’s happy about today.
Raking in £9.64m on Thursday alone, The Force Awakens broke the opening day record held by the second instalment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in the UK.
Abrams said he wanted to capture the “sense of heart, the loyalty, the sweetness” of previous Star Wars films:
I saw the original trilogy and I thought if there was any way to be part of bringing that back, it would be incredible. Katie said: ‘If you want to do this and you don’t, you’re going to regret this.’