J.J. Abrams Talks the New 'Star Wars'

New “Star Wars: Episode VII” director J.J. Abrams sat down with Empire to discuss the early stages of development, and why he had originally turned the film down.

When asked about where the movie is heading, Abrams said “I don’t know because we’re just getting started. So it’s a great question that I hope I’ll have a good answer to when I know what the answer is.”

In reference to his other big science fiction flick “Star Trek,” and how it will compare, Abrams says “There are infinitely more questions than answers right now, but to me, they’re not that dissimilar. Though I came at these both from very different places, where they both meet is a place of ‘Ooh, that’s really exciting.’”

Abrams reassures fans that he will take “Star Wars” seriously, saying, “I feel like I can identify a hunger for what I would want to see again and that is an incredibly exciting place to begin a project. The movies, the worlds could not be more different but that feeling that there’s something amazing here is the thing that they share.”

How about the fact that Abrams had originally turned down the opportunity?

“My knee-jerk reaction was that I’m in the middle of working on the Star Trek movie and I can’t even consider it. But then time went by and I got further along working on the movie and getting to a place where I had done most of the heavy lifting. So when I met with Kathy Kennedy we just started discussing it and I was able to actually engage in the conversation... That was the beginning.”

“Star Wars: Episode VII” will hit theaters in 2015.