J.J. Abrams Talks About Keeping Star Wars Secrets As A Chiwetel Ejiofor Casting Rumor Surfaces

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J.J. Abrams is known for trying to stay quiet about his film projects but when you’re working on something like Star Trek or Star Wars it’s nigh impossible to keep secrets secret. Doesn’t mean he won’t keep trying. 

Abrams recently spoke with the Times of London about his wish for secrecy surrounding Star Wars: Episode VII.

If you watch the first movie, you don’t actually know exactly what the Empire is trying to do. They’re going to rule by fear – but you don’t know what their end game is. You don’t know what Leia is princess of. You don’t yet understand who Jabba the Hutt is, even though there is a reference to him. You don’t know that Vader is Luke’s father, Leia is his sister – but the possibility is all there. The beauty of that movie was that it was an unfamiliar world, and yet you wanted to see it expand and to see where it went.

Abrams certainly has a point but 35 years later, a good amount of the Star Wars universe has been explored. It’s not an unfamiliar world anymore. Unless the script for the new trilogy brings in something entirely new, I’m not sure the need to stay mum is as relevant in 2013.

But on that note, a new casting rumor has emerged thanks to that same interview. While in Abrams office, the journalist spotted actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, in the past rumored for the starring role in Doctor Who. And, living in the world we do, he posed that the actor might be there for a Star Wars job interview.

Abrams obviously told the reporter he couldn’t discuss casting but just yesterday, Flicks and the City asked Ejiofor if Abrams came knocking for one of the Star Wars films, what would his reaction be? “Well we’ll see if it happens, you know. I’m not going to tell you,” he answered.

(via Blastr, /Film)

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Jill Pantozzi
Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."