Now that he's boldly set to visit a galaxy far, far away, J.J. Abrams is still figuring out what to do once he gets there.
The director opened up to the U.K.'s (aptly named) Empire magazine about the challenges of directing Star Wars: Episode VII now that he's officially aboard and working with scribe Michael Arndt on the screenplay.
When asked how he—as a massive Star Wars fan—will be able to approach the post-Jedi era with the same objectivity he brought to Star Trek, Abrams admitted he's slowly finding his way.
"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. 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,' he said. "And even though I was never a Star Trek fan, I felt like there was a version of it that would make me excited, that I would think ‘that's cool, that feels right, I actually would want to see that.'"
The filmmaker also suggested that just as his passion for Trek helped him successfully reboot that series, his deep love for the universe George Lucas created will be his guide storywise for that beloved franchise.
"How we were going to get there, what the choices were going to be, who was going to be in it—all of those things I knew would have to be figured out, but it was all based on a foundation of this indescribable, guttural passion for something that could be," Abrams elaborated. "It's a similar feeling that I have with Star Wars. 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."
While it's unclear whether he'll continue to helm future adventures of the starship Enterprise after this summer's Star Trek Into Darkness, Abrams revealed that he had a lot of unexpected support from Lucas' best pal, Steven Spielberg, to give Star Wars a go.
"I will say that Steven was very encouraging of Star Wars. It's funny because I talked to him about it and it turned out he knew all about what was going on," he told the magazine.
All we can say, J.J., is may the Force be with you.