Abrams denied the Grunberg quote. In addition...
J. J. Abrams: “Here’s the thing about Greg [Grunberg]. You put a microphone in front of him, you never know what you’re going to get. I love my friend Greg. He’s my best friend since Kindergarten. I think that my enthusiasm for [
Episode]
VIII is enormous. I think he also might have invented a couple of the quotes that he
gave (‘[J. J. Abrams] read [the script for
Episode VIII] and said something he never, ever says, [which was that it was] so good [that he wished he had written it]. He may have said something one time on Lost, with Damon [Lindelof], but I never hear him express regret like that.’) but I am very much excited for, and very jealous of anyone, especially Rian [Johnson], who gets to work so closely with this extraordinary cast and crew. Truly an amazing group. In that regard, for sure, but honestly, I’m also relieved to have gotten the chance to do a Star Wars movie.” (
January 13, 2016) (
archive)
J. J. Abrams: “I’d be lying if I said there weren’t pangs of regret [about not directing
Episode VIII]. Particularly when I realize I won’t get to say ‘Action!’ to Daisy Ridley, or get to work with Mark Hamill in a scene where he gets to speak.” (
November 22, 2016)
J. J. Abrams: “Well, it’s certainly something that I’m aware of now 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 [Giacchino]’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.”(
October 18, 2017)
J. J. Abrams: “I had no intention to return. But when the opportunity presented itself to finish a story that we had begun with these new characters, to tell the last chapter of their story, it felt like there was a chance to do it in a way where we could go beyond, and do better than we did in Seven. I learned so much in that movie and I saw that this was a chance to sort of realize something that we hadn’t quite achieved – and part of that was it was simply the beginning of these new characters and their story. The opportunity to sort of take what we had learned, to take the feeling of who these characters are and what they are and give them a final chapter that felt in the spirit of what we begun? It was too delicious of an opportunity to pass up.” (
December 6, 2017)
J. J. Abrams: “[I had differences of opinion] all the time [with Kathleen Kennedy], [but she] really takes in what people say and finds a creative way to aggregate and distill the conversation.” “I had a bunch of ideas from the beginning, back on [Episode] VII, of where the story would go, I just never in my wildest dreams thought I would have a chance to execute them.” (
May 10, 2018) (
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Rian Johnson: “Anything’s still open [about Rey’s parentage], and I’m not writing the next film. [J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio] are doing it.” “With all of these movies, Obi-Wan’s whole speech about a certain point of view always applies, so I think that you have to always think about the context of how information is given. But for me, dramatically, that’s why that reveal at that moment made sense.” (
December 31, 2017) (
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Rian Johnson: “[J. J. Abrams and I have] spoken, but I’m totally enjoying being an audience member and a fan, and I’m so excited to see where he takes it next because I have no idea. It could go so many different ways, I want to be surprised, I want to be thrilled, I want it to go places that I don’t expect. And I have a feeling it’ll do that.” “Yeah. [Leaving the movie open-ended to go anywhere] was part of my goal, y’know, let’s set the table for the next one so that the easy answers are taken away. How much fun will that be?” (
April 2, 2018)
Rian Johnson: “Absolutely, there were conversations going back and forth [between J. J. Abrams and myself], both coming out of The Force Awakens into this and going from this into the next one. In the same way that it was with J.J. handing it off to me with The Last Jedi, now me handing it back to him with Episode IX, I am very much just passing the torch. We had conversations about some of the things I did and ideas for going forward, but the truth is that each one of these films has to come from the person who’s making it. I can’t wait to just sit back, be an audience member and be surprised by where J.J. takes it. I am so excited to see where it goes.” (
April 5, 2018)
Not even Rian Johnson expects to not be surprised by IX.
