Star Wars 8 Script Is "So Good" That JJ Abrams Regrets Not Doing It, Actor Says

Star Wars: The Force Awakens only just arrived in theaters last week, but talk is now shifting to its follow-up. The Force Awakens actor Greg Grunberg says in a new interview that his friend JJ Abrams recently read the script for Episode VII, due out in theaters in 2017, and was blown away by it.

"He read it and said something he never, ever says," Grunberg told The Washington Post.

According to Grunberg, Abrams said the Episode VIII script is "so good" that wishes he'd written it himself. This was a rare admission, according to Abrams' lifelong friend.

"He may have said something one time on Lost with Damon [Lindelof, the co-creator]," Grunberg, who plays X-Wing pilot Snap Wexley, added. "But I never hear him express regret like that."

Looper director Rian Johnson is on board to direct Episode VIII. Abrams apparently screened early versions of The Force Awakens for Johnson to ease the transition. Abrams will remain on-board as an executive producer for Episode VIII, which is scheduled to arrive in May 2017.

Veteran Star Wars writer Lawrence Kasdan said in a recent interview that Johnson is going to make "some weird thing" with Episode VIII.

"If you've seen Rian's work, you know it's not going be like anything that's ever been in Star Wars," Kasdan said. "You couldn't have three more different people than JJ, Rian, and Colin [Trevorrow, director of Episode 9]. Those movies will have the Star Wars saga as their basis, but everything else will be different."