Star Wars Episode VII: J.J. Abrams Not Likely To Direct, Jon Favreau Interested

Steven Spielberg told Access Hollywood he won’t be sitting in the director’s chair for “Stars Wars: Episode VII,” and now two more fanboy favorites – J.J. Abrams and Jon Favreau – are weighing in on helming the next installment of the franchise.

Abrams rebooted “Star Trek” to sweeping critical and fan approval, but according to the director, he doesn’t see himself working with Wookies.

“Look, Star Wars is one of my favorite movies of all time,” he told HollywoodLife.com this weekend, “I frankly feel that – I almost feel that, in a weird way, the opportunity for whomever it is to direct that movie, it comes with the burden of being that kind of iconic movie and series. I was never a big ‘Star Trek’ fan growing up, so for me, working on ‘Star Trek’ didn’t have any of that, you know, almost fatal sacrilege, and so, I am looking forward more then [sic] anyone to the next iterations of ‘Star Wars,’ but I believe I will be going as a paying moviegoer!”

As for Favreau, who earned fanboy cred with “Iron Man,” he appeared to be interested, but stopped short of busting out into an Ewok celebration dance when asked about the possibly of directing the highly anticipated project.

“I think both J.J. and I come from a generation of people who formed our whole creative persona around what we experienced as kids from watching those films, and I have had the good fortune of working with George [Lucas] and around George, and whether it is doing a voice on ‘Clone Wars,’ or being at the Skywalker Ranch mixing ‘Iron Man’ – so I have been very happy and lucky to just experience the culture that Lucas has created, both in my own life growing up as a kid and professional,” he told the website. “I am just giddy, first and foremost as a fan, to see what happens with it. I think there is a lot of question marks of how they are going to do it, and who they are going to do it with, and what the story is going to be about; but to say that I am not excited about it is definitely an understatement. We’ll see.”

For more on the direction Access is hoping the next “Star Wars” movie goes, CLICK HERE!

— Jesse Spero