quote:
you really think episodes VIII and IX won't be directed by Abrams?
he ain't gonna let his dream project go. we've hardly seen anything from him directly, and can already tell he's loving the hell outta this
At first, almost everyone, including myself, assumed he'd move on after Episode VII, but remain in an executive producer/story-by/Godfather role or whatever after that. In fact, there have been multiple reports that new directors would take on Episodes VIII and IX, simply because there's almost no way a single director can meet those every-two-year deadlines. Episode VII comes out December 2015, and he'd have to be FILMING Episode VIII five months later in May 2016 to make a December 2017 release. That's basically unheard of, unless they somehow how find a way to have the script for Episode VIII
completely finished by the time Episode VII hits theaters. Even then, he wouldn't get a break between movies, because pre-production would have to begin immediately, and could easily risk getting burnt out.
That said, it is odd that they "skipped" the announcement for a 2017/Episode VIII director and went straight to announcing a director for 2018 instead. Yeah, Abrams could have totally fallen in love with the process and wants to see these through. But again, they'd have to move mountains for him to meet those deadlines, and I just don't know if that's possible.
[This message has been edited by TCTTS (edited 6/4/2014 12:45p).]