J.J. Abrams talks Steven Spielberg’s contributions to The Force Awakens

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The Collector's Edition of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS hits Blu-ray next Tuesday, and all sorts of interesting tidbits have been making their way online thanks to J.J. Abrams' commentary for the film. This latest factoid comes to us by way of Screencrush and it involves Steven Spielberg's contributions. Read on to see what he added to the proceedings!

J.J. Abrams on Spielberg contributing to the Tie Fighter sinking:

While this is a CG effect of the swallowing, this explosion was Steven Spielberg’s idea. He loved the idea that the thing get sucked into the sand and then… that!

Regarding the lightsaber fight among the trees:

When I showed the first cut of this scene to Steven Spielberg … he suggested ‘What if trees were falling while they were fighting?’ And I said ‘That’s cool, but we’ve shot the scene already.’ And then I said to [visual effects supervisor] Roger Guyett, ‘Is there any way we could have trees falling?’ And he said, ‘If you want to pay for it.’ So we did.

Every little change and addition made to a Star Wars film is deliberate, so fans like myself love to eat up facts like this. I hate "double dipping" as much as the next guy, but when it comes to Star Wars, I'm not going to be able to keep myself away from the Collector's Edition. Here's hoping the other features are just as interesting!

The Collector's Edition of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS hits Blu-ray on November 15th.