Lucasfilm Stopped J.J. Abrams From Destroying This Important Star Wars Planet
When "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" arrived in theaters back in 2015, it kicked off a fresh sequel trilogy of movies that pushed the galaxy, far, far away in a number of surprising new directions. The film is a legacy sequel at its heart since it follows similar beats to "Star Wars: A New Hope," but still tells a new story with support from some of the old guard. The film was a wild success, earning over $2 billion worldwide (via Box Office Mojo) and gaining a 93% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
However, after "The Force Awakens," things started to get very messy in the "Star Wars" franchise. Although Rian Johnson took "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" in an interesting direction, there was a huge fan backlash against the film. When "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" eventually arrived in 2019 to close out the trilogy, it was met with lackluster reviews, gaining a 52% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Comments made by J.J. Abrams after the trilogy had concluded suggested that there may not have been a clear plan for the films. Now, a surprising new admission suggests that there were debates about the specific details in the franchise, as Lucasfilm apparently stopped Abrams from destroying an important planet in the series.
J.J. Abrams wanted to blow up Coruscant
Fans will remember that in "The Force Awakens," the villainous First Order uses Starkiller Base — a planet-sized Death Star — to re-establish dominance in the galaxy. The facist regime incinerates the New Republic capital, Hosnian Prime, as well as all of its surrounding planets. Although many were confused as to why the Republic capital had moved from Coruscant to Hosnian Prime, it seems like we finally have an answer. J.J. Abrams wanted to blow the city-planet up, but Lucasfilm was against the idea.
"Star Wars" executive Pablo Hidalgo revealed the news in a now-deleted thread on Twitter (via ComicBook.com.) He explained, "Basically BR [J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot] wanted it blown up; LFL [Lucasfilm Ltd.] didn't." Hidalgo didn't reveal why Lucasfilm wanted to keep Coruscant around, but perhaps the company didn't want to cut off any storytelling potential for future projects. After all, Coruscant holds an important place in the galaxy as it appears in every single movie in the prequel trilogy.
Hidalgo reportedly then said, "Hosnian Prime was the unsatisfying middle ground." So, it seems that Abrams still got the planetary destruction he wanted, even though Coruscant survives to see another day. Hopefully, one of the many "Star Wars" films or Disney+ shows in development takes advantage of Coruscant's preservation.