J. J. Abrams Directing ‘Star Wars Episode VII’? Question Mark?

We’ve been agonizing over who will direct Star Wars: Episode VII for awhile now, due in no small part to the constantly changing rumors surrounding who will helm it. The only thing we knew for sure was that Oscar-winning screenwriter and Star Wars fan Michael Arndt was involved in the screenplay. Now we are finally hearing some rather convincing (but possibly fake) rumors about the much-anticipated director.

The Wrap reports J. J. Abrams has signed to direct, which was a surprise to us. Although Abrams has said Star Wars was the first movie to “blow his mind” in terms of special effects, he also said back in November that he passed on it. He told Entertainment Weekly that wouldn’t be his next project, even though he’s repeatedly praised the series.

“As a kid, Star Wars was much more my thing than Star Trek was,” told Hero Complex back in 2009. “If you look at the last three Star Wars films and what technology allowed them to do, they covered so much terrain in terms of design, locations, characters, aliens, ships — so much of the spectacle has been done and it seems like every aspect has been covered, whether it’s geography or design of culture or weather system or character or ship type. Everything has been tapped in those movies. The challenge of doing Star Trek — despite the fact that it existed before Star Wars — is that we are clearly in the shadow of what George Lucas has done.” [EW]

If The Wrap is correct and J. J. Abrams is directing, that means he’s helming both Star Wars and Star Trek. Which means I finally get to use this photoshop for something other than trolling:

Probably should have more lens flare.