Come December 18, when Star Wars: The Force Awakens touches down in theaters, it’ll welcome not only a massive outpouring of support – and, one would hope, admiration – but it’ll also mark the end of a journey that’s spanned years. Yes, Disney’s acquisition of LucasFilm and its remaining assets made waves in 2012, but in the months that followed it took careful consideration and planning before we arrived at the budding new sci-fi universe that’s due to launch in under two months’ time.
During that period, Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3 scribe was attached to pen the script for The Force Awakens, before the House of Mouse ultimately appointed J.J. Abrams at the helm of the soft reboot. This meant the former Star Trek filmmaker assumed story duties alongside series stalwart Lawrence Kasdan, and it was revealed that Arndt’s vision and Disney’s timeline simply didn’t align.
At the time of the switcheroo, Abrams touched base with the changeover, revealing that “it became clear that given the time frame and given the process and the way the thing was going that working with Larry in this way was going to get us where we need to be and when we needed to be.” However, what’s interesting is that Disney has still acknowledged the writer’s contribution to the project on the recently-revealed poster, slotting in a writing credit beside both Abrams and Kasdan.
Our guess? Only the general framework of Arndt’s script remained when Abrams came on board, and the studio wanted to ensure that the leading contributor to the creative process remained attached for the entire production, rather than moving onto pastures anew.
Remaining in the Star Wars universe for the time being and another related nugget that surfaced only day is in relation to Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and, specifically, the small role that Christopher McQuarrie had in the screenplay. According to a post by Latino Review, the Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation director dropped in for a period of two weeks in order to polish the script – a script that was also shaped by Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz.
The Force Awakens will jump-start Disney’s rebooted galactic universe on December 18, while Rogue One: A Star Wars Story picks up the torch for the studio’s Anthology series on December 16, 2016. To glimpse Arndt’s writing credit, you can check out the official new poster below.
