Star Wars Episode VIII - Everything We Know So Far

6. J.J. Abrams Thinks The Script Is "Amazing" (But It's Being Rewritten Anyway)

Despite the fact that J.J. Abrams isn't going to be behind the camera - or on scriptwriting duties, for that matter - as far as Episode VIII is concerned, he has apparently expressed his admiration for the film's screenplay (penned by Rian Johnson). According to Greg Grunberg, actor and long-time friend of J.J. Abrams:

"He read it and said something he never, ever says. He said: €˜It€™s so good, I wish I were making it.'"

Despite Abrams' praise, however, the script has been deemed far from perfect as far as Disney are concerned; rumour has it that it is currently being rewritten. That's the case according to The Wrap's Jeff Sneider, who appeared on an episode of the Meet The Movie Press podcast to talk about it. Here's what he said:

"I said before there were two young female roles, now I actually heard that the rewrite will make these roles smaller. They want to get to know better the characters they already have. So the new rewrite is shrinking the new roles in order to spend more time with Rey, Poe and so on."

If that's true, it makes sense for Johnson to put more of an emphasis on the new characters, as one of the biggest criticisms of The Force Awakens came from a perceived one-dimensionality as far as the new characters were concerned.