To this point, the official line on Simon Pegg’s involvement with Star Wars: The Force Awakens is that he just showed up to put on a suit. Recently, though, J.J. Abrams has admitted Pegg was more involved than we realized.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Abrams noted that Pegg was essentially part of the brain trust of the movie keeping it on track:
…in all honesty, his role in this – not the performance or the character – but his support and friendship has been massively important and helpful in the process… He would drop by the set because he wanted to, and when he could, he would help… He was an honest, critical friend. And he wasn’t so close to it that he became immune to things. He would come in with fresh eyes and very smart ideas.
So he wasn’t writing the script, but he does appear to have been looking out for any Gungans or midi-chlorians and shutting that crap down before it infected the movie. And really it’s kind of a relief. One of the biggest problems with George Lucas running the franchise was that he was excessively protective and yet completely unable to accept any sort of feedback or listen to fans, unless they went completely insane. I firmly believe the prequels were going to be smeared with Jar-Jar Binks until Lucas started tearing open all that hate mail.
Now it’s just a question of figuring out which suit he’s in. Any takers?
(Via the Mary Sue)
