Director J.J. Abrams is keeping the secrets of Star Wars: The Force Awakens close to his chest, but in a new interview he does shed some light on how he approached what is certain to be the biggest film of the year.
Abrams tells Wired magazine that he approached the new film in the Star Wars saga by looking to the original 1977 Star Wars for inspiration.
"We wanted to tell a story that had its own self-contained beginning, middle, and end but at the same time, like A New Hope, implied a history that preceded it and also hinted at a future to follow," Abrams says. "When Star Wars first came out, it was a film that both allowed the audience to understand a new story but also to infer all sorts of exciting things that might be. In that first movie, Luke wasn't necessarily the son of Vader, he wasn't necessarily the brother of Leia, but it was all possible."
He goes on to talk about how the brilliance of George Lucas' original film was that it told a self-contained story but yet hinted at a rich and vibrant world happening off screen. Abrams says he's tried to capture that with The Force Awakens.
"Think about what he was able to stir up," Abrams says of Lucas, "the questions he was able to ask -- exactly the right questions --the idea that he was able to create a world that clearly went so far beyond the boundaries of what we were seeing and hearing. This, to me, is one of the greatest things about Star Wars. Working on this new movie has been as much about trying to set up elements of what is beyond what you're seeing as it has been about telling a story that will be satisfying in and of itself. But it can't feel like a cop-out-like we're just setting things up and not resolving them."
It looks like Abrams has looked to A New Hope for inspiration in more than a few ways. From the trailers, it looks like Abrams is mimicking with what appears to be another Death Star-like weapon, a desert planet and a brand-new cast of characters that are thrown together by fate. Don't expect a cliffhanger ending either. If Abrams is indeed looking to tell a standalone story along the lines of Lucas' first movie like he says he is, The Force Awakens may very well end with a reward ceremony before going straight to the credits.
There is plenty more in the full interview, in which Abrams talks about working with Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi director Lawrence Kazdan, the brilliance of John Williams and the marketing behind the upcoming film. With The Force Awakens barely more than a month away, fans won't have to wait much longer to see what Abrams has cooked up.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is in theaters on Dec. 18.
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