It’s been touted as the biggest movie ever made, and sure enough, director J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy found that presiding over the production of Star Wars: The Force Awakens necessitated a strict policy of keeping the film’s spoiler-sensitive details under wraps.
From masking the location of exterior shots to keeping a tight rein on the footage shown, the creative pair are keeping a tight leash on all things The Force Awakens, and that’s an effort that is ultimately for the fans.
During the recent Star Wars: The Force Awakens global press day – which itself was smothered in secrecy – Abrams and Kennedy spoke about upholding a level of respect for the core fanbase, and that any preemptive leak would only spoil the experience.
[zergpaid]Indeed, Abrams took point by answering questions about his relationship with Disney as a director. Prior to wrapping up work on the long-anticipated sequel, Abrams was cautious that the studio would want to showcase as much of the film as possible during its marketing stint, and while there’s certainly been no shortage of promos, the director admitted that the House of Mouse was surprisingly pragmatic about the whole ordeal.
“While we were working on the movie, I realized how engaged with the fans and forthcoming Lucasfilm had always been. My nature, which is to keep things quiet, was something that I was certain we were going to have fights about,” Abrams said. “But Disney, to my shock, was arguing to not ruin, not reveal, not show every story beat. We’ve all seen trailers for films that literally show you the movie in Cliff’s Notes form, and you go to see the film and go, ‘yeah, that was literally the movie. I saw it in a 2 minute, 10 second piece.’ So I was very grateful that Disney actually took the lead to keep things quieter.”
When asked a similar question, Kennedy echoed the sentiments of Abrams:
“I think right from the beginning, we’ve respected the fans. The fans have been the ones focused on everybody getting to be surprised,” Kennedy said. “I’ve had people say to me that they don’t want to read anything at all, so they can get to the theater and have it be a surprise. That’s what’s driving it, and we’ve tried to respect it.”
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is on course to launch in North America come December 18.