J.J. Abramsjust pitchedStar Wars 9to the top brass at Disney. With the recent announcement that Disney is purchasing most of 21st Century Fox, Disney CEO Bob Iger has extended through 2021, so he’s still the man that the biggest of big decisions need to go through.Star Warsis pretty much the biggest franchise ever, so it makes sense that Abrams, despite his very good track record, would need to pitch the story to Iger directly.
The news ofJ.J. Abrams' pitchcame out as a result of this Disney/Fox merger. While tracking updates, via conference calls that have been made to answer the great many questions people have, it was revealed that Abrams was set to pitch the story to Bob Iger on the morning of December 15, which just so happens to be the day thatStar Wars: The Last Jediarrived in theaters. What went on in that pitch room? We may not ever know, but thefinal chapter in this new trilogyis one step closer to becoming a reality.
“J.J. Abrams is pitching the story forEpisode IXtomorrow morning.”
Star Wars: The Last Jedi, being the middle chapter in the trilogy, directed by Rian Johnson, set the table for J.J. Abrams to return and finish out this latest saga revolving around the tug of war between Kylo Ren and Rey. Abrams very successfully relaunched the franchise in 2015 withStar Wars: The Force Awakensand, after taking a little break, he was courted back by Lucasfilm forStar Wars 9. This happened after Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World) left the project over creative differences. The draft of the script he and Derek Connolly were working on was scrapped. So Abrams, along with Chris Terrio (Justice League) are now trying to crack the story. What’s it going to be? At this stage, not much can be said, but Abrams had this to say in an interview with the BBC earlier this year.
“Well, it’s certainly something that I’m aware ofnow working on Episode IX, coming back into this world after having done Episode VII. I feel like we need to approach this with the same excitement that we had when we were kids, loving what these movies were. And at the same time, we have to take them places that they haven’t gone, and that’s sort of our responsibility. It’s a strange thing, Michael’s worked on things like Planet of the Apes and Star Trek and Star Wars, and these are the things of dreams. Yet we can’t just revel in that; we have to go elsewhere.”
Disney and Lucasfilm were incredibly confident in Rian Johnson’s vision forStar Wars: The Last Jediand critics almost universally love it. However, the initial fan response has been more tepid, with the movie currently holding a 56 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Will that force some changes to take place onStar Wars 9for J.J. Abrams? We’ll have to wait and see, but thanks toLaughing Place, we know he’s at least got a story in mind.Star Wars: Episode IXwas originally set for release in May 2019, but after Abrams was brought on board, it was delayed until July 06, 2025.
