Simon Pegg Says J.J. Abrams Will Re-Invigorate The Star Wars Saga
This article is more than 2 years old
This week we will finally get to watch the long-awaited Star Trek Into Darkness (assuming it isn’t already out in your neck of the woods). Before 2009’s J.J. Abrams reboot film, Star Trek was almost in a holding pattern after the tepid Star Trek: Nemesis and the lukewarm Star Trek Enterprise TV series. Now Abrams and Bad Robot have been tasked with breathing new life into another space franchise with Star Wars:Episode VII. In a new interview with Total Film, actor Simon Pegg talks about how J.J. Abrams will re-invigorate Star Wars, just like he did with Star Trek.
After the prequels, it seemed unlikely that we’d see new Star Wars movies anytime soon…or at least any that we could get excited about. Abrams’ involvement is as controversial as anything else he does, with some enjoying his work and other thinking he’s a franchise-killing antichrist. Here’s what Pegg thinks Abrams’ involvement will mean for George Lucas’ venerable film franchise:
What will he bring to the franchise? Everything that was missing from the last three. That’s what he did to Star Trek, really – invigorate it with a little bit of Star Wars magic. He switched it from science-fiction to science-fantasy.
And I think if anyone can pull [Star Wars] out of the mire, it’s J.J. He’ll bring the fun back. Lucas seemed to misread what made the first ones great, and concentrate on things that people didn’t really care about, or willfully ignore the things that people cared about. Whereas J.J. will embrace them all.
We’re going to see the Millennium Falcon again. We’re going to see those characters again. All the things that we loved about the first three, we will see again.
Star Wars: Episode VII will begin production in early 2014 in the U.K., and it’s only going to be a few years before we judge J.J. Abrams’ take on the Star Wars saga for ourselves. Disney better hope it’s not a misfire, since they’ve got some pretty ambitious plans for the franchise…
