It was announced today that J.J. Abrams’ ever-busy production company Bad Robot is partnering with Mattel for a film about colorful toy monsters called The Beastlies, which Deadline describes as “the first of several family-friendly world creation original properties.” Fun! Kids and adults alike love properties.
Oh yeah, and he’s also working on Star Wars: Episode IX.
In an interview with IndieWire, Abrams, who took over directing duties from Colin Trevorrow, was asked about the online reaction to Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, especially among those upset about the film “introducing more female characters into the franchise’s universe.”
“Star Wars is a big galaxy, and you can sort of find almost anything you want to in Star Wars,” Abrams said. “If you are someone who feels threatened by women and needs to lash out against them, you can probably find an enemy in Star Wars. You can probably look at the first movie that George [Lucas] did [Star Wars: A New Hope] and say that Leia was too outspoken, or she was too tough. Anyone who wants to find a problem with anything can find the problem.”
He added, “The internet seems to be made for that.”
Abrams was hesitant to say anything specific about Episode IX, but he did clarify that The Last Jedi‘s vocal minority response has no effect on the film. “I will say that the story of Rey and Poe and Finn and Kylo Ren — and if you look, there are three men and one woman, to those that are complaining that there are too many women in Star Wars — their story continues in a way that I couldn’t be more excited about and cannot wait for people to see,” he said.
Now let’s have a totally reasonable discussion about Abrams’ comments.
(Via IndieWire)