As well, he was set to co-write the screenplay with his longtime collaborator, Derek Connolly. Then, in August 2015, as post-production on Episode VII was ongoing, Colin Trevorrow was hired to direct the concluding film of the trilogy. While the film that would go on to be known as The Force Awakens went into production, Rian Johnson was hired to write and direct the follow-up the middle entry in this new trilogy, The Last Jedi. Following this, we got news that Mark Hammil, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford would be returning to their iconic roles, and not long after, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, and Adam Driver were announced as the lead actors of the new trilogy.
Along with directing, Abrams would co-write the screenplay with Lawrence Kasdan, one of the screenwriters of The Empire Strikes Back. The first piece of news came with the announcement that JJ Abrams would be directing the first film in this new trilogy.
When Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012 and announced plans for the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, the first live-action films in the franchise since 2005, many fans were overjoyed to hear the news and waited with bated breath for any scrap of information what filmmakers would be at the helm, which characters, if any, would return, or who exactly was going to be the face of this new generation of Star Wars.