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For Sale Apr 8, 2026 at 1:25 AM

Why J.J. Abrams Is Downsizing

Posted by Top_Report_4895


Why J.J. Abrams Is Downsizing
The Hollywood Reporter
Why J.J. Abrams Is Downsizing
His Bad Robot banner went from a $250 million Warners deal to scrapping its Santa Monica HQ in just a few years.

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bluehawk232 Apr 8, 2026 +56
Because it relied on big IPs in the 2010s (Star Trek, MI, and Star Wars) and they all dried up for it.
56
ai_art_is_art Apr 8, 2026 +58
Star Trek - second film was middling, especially given the Khan plot line strength. Hand-off to Justin Lin did poorly Mission Impossible - Only did the one entry. McQuarrie took over and has owned it since. Star Wars - Holy shit, what a f***-up. Started off with a safe soft reboot. Passed off to someone who wanted to "subvert expectations". The final act, which JJ handled, was the worst third act in the history of science fiction. Nobody trusts him and his mystery boxes anymore.
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hinosxz_4u Apr 8, 2026 +23
Agreed. IMHO, Star Wars/LucasFilm, not having a 3 film storyline worked out forever freaking boggles my mind. Supposedly I heard Lucas left them a binder, storyline and they threw it out. Additionally they wanted a quick ROI so they rehashed the plot point of A New Hope. LucasFilm throwing out the ending universe. Kennedy saying "there's no source material". Good riddance. I have no hate for the actors, they did what they could with what was given. Marketing to over seas removed Fynn from posters etc, was always played for laughs. Black storm trooper freeing them could have been great, see Tel'c from SG1. But he indiscriminately killed his brothers instead. "Some how Palpatine returned" Fuc* JJ and his "box". Fringe was cool, last season was rushed. And im sure that had more to.do with show runners Pinker and Wyman. I could go on but I dont want to.
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Difficult_Ad2864 Apr 8, 2026 +3
I heard that JJ had a general story but lucasfilm allowed rian to do whatever he wanted
3
SlouchyGuy Apr 8, 2026 +1
>not having a 3 film storyline worked out forever freaking boggles my mind. JJ did have the story for the trilogy, it was thrown out by Johnson, Lucasfilm allowed it. Treworrow left over differences regarding the direction Johnson took.
1
futuresdawn Apr 8, 2026 +13
I seriously doubt jj had a story beyond a lazy rehash of a new hope with his typical piss poor mystery box plotting. Johnson made the only good film in that trilogy while being handed the utterly moronic concept of Luke walking away from the galaxy, and he left it with a fantastic set up for 9 and jj shat the bed. Trevorrow's script is terrible but still manages to be better than the rise of skywalker
13
SlouchyGuy Apr 8, 2026 +3
Maybe, but it's the matter of record- look up interviews. I disagree that Johnson made a good movie, I thought at least half og it wasn't that good, and the only part that I actually like was the realtionship between Kylo and Rey
3
mashfiq13 Apr 8, 2026 +9
Soneone on listnook said it best, it seemed each movie in the last trilogy hated the movie that came right before it.
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SlouchyGuy Apr 8, 2026 -1
Yeah, which is why I don't think Johnson made "his own" movie. Lucas did with prequels, Johnson made anti-JJ movie that just did the opposite or paid hommages to original trilogy. Rey-Kylo and Rose-Fonn parts were original, but one of them failed
-1
ai_art_is_art Apr 9, 2026 +1
\> utterly moronic concept of Luke walking away from the galaxy This could have been solved by putting Luke on a dark path. Simple exposition didn't cut it though. You owe your audiences more with choices like that, and good god did they drop the ball.
1
Difficult_Ad2864 Apr 8, 2026 +4
And before all of that he did the same stuff to lost
4
Ill-Wind2384 Apr 8, 2026 +4
Well JJ only directed one Mi film but Bad Robot co-produced the 3 films after that.
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Photog1981 Apr 9, 2026 +2
Johnson wanted to ignore Abrams first act, Abrams returned and decided to ignore Johnson's work, smash his intended second and third act into one rushed mess of a movie.
2
Standard_Island546 Apr 9, 2026 +1
Again the subvert expectations line… He did not say that. No one said that. An interviewer explicitly asked him if he was trying to do that and he said “no”. Just say you didn’t like the movie, don’t make shit up.
1
Naive-Spirit-516 Apr 11, 2026 +1
You're probably replying to a bot, the response just seemed like an aggregation of general listnook opinion rather than anything a real human would say. The username is also "Ai art is art" lmao.
1
ButtSpelunker420 Apr 8, 2026 +19
Somehow unemployment returned?
19
slimwillendorf Apr 8, 2026 +10
He should back to his campy roots à la Alias and Fringe. His higher brow action wannabes aren’t working.
10
DKToTheFuture Apr 8, 2026 +1
Isn’t that what he tried with Duster?
1
Smart_Ass_Dave Apr 9, 2026 +1
Felicity reboot or GTFO
1
Strange_Specialist4 Apr 8, 2026 +53
Because he fucked up star wars?
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SliceAltruistic1144 Apr 8, 2026 +19
Should be jailed for that.
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DJettster237 Apr 8, 2026 +5
He's being blacklisted so maybe it's worse
5
ai_art_is_art Apr 8, 2026 +3
\> blacklisted For real? Any sources I can read about that? That sounds wild.
3
Drinking-Printer-Ink Apr 8, 2026 +4
Just look at his Wikipedia page. He went from directing cultural juggernauts to making daytime TV slop all while working hard to get his daughter’s music career going. I doubt his phone rings much these days
4
DJettster237 Apr 8, 2026 +5
I can only assume since he's working on nothing or chooses not to. He even took money from Warner Bros to make movies in 2024 and never did any.
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SliceAltruistic1144 Apr 8, 2026 +3
Should be blacklisted while in jail.
3
Shumina-Ghost Apr 8, 2026 +6
The man who couldn’t finish a god damn sandwich has *finally* finished subverting expectations so hard that the scoreboard flipped. Man’s done his work, made a shitload of money, and now may he float away in a big ass mystery box. I can’t stand how good he is at hype and how shit he is at delivering substance. Goodbye, Bad Robot.
6
canitouchyours Apr 8, 2026 +14
Star Wars was so bad. He will always be remembered for that f*** up.
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_Silas_the_Virus Apr 8, 2026 +17
Because he ruins every franchise he touches?
17
Patient-Finding-1966 Apr 8, 2026 +9
His biggest crime is giving Alex Kurtzman access to Star Trek IMO.
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moGUNZthanROSES Apr 8, 2026 +3
If you know anything about JJ Abram’s… he doesn’t even know why yet either.
3
Derpykins666 Apr 9, 2026 +3
I do often wonder what the new trilogy would have been like if he was just given full control over the entire trilogy, going between directors and letting them do whatever clearly didn't work, then I feel bad cause he was kind of handed some BS and given like 2 years to make it work. But it didn't really work. It did make a lot of money though. JJ and Bad Robot is used to being handed big properties, and I don't think that's going to be maintainable moving forward. So I expect he's just downsizing to keep things open, but work on more meaningful or smaller projects. Or not, and it'll just be another studio that goes the way of the wind.
3
SgtRedRum518 Apr 8, 2026 +4
It’s because he’s overrated dogshit. Saved you a click.
4
FLcitizen Apr 8, 2026 +2
Because he just stopped after Star Wars, directed nothing, he could have tried to get creative and do different types of genres. Done something like serious dramas or horror? I don’t know something different than his usual wheel house. Looks like he produced a lot of cool stuff though.
2
cybaz Apr 8, 2026 +2
He got pushed out by the Marvel Cinematic Universe machine that dominated the 2010's.
2
all_the_spells Apr 8, 2026 +2
Cause the man can start a project, but doesn’t know how to finish one.
2
forkandspoon2011 Apr 8, 2026 +3
Fumbled the Cloverfield franchise like a true chump, not to mention his assault on Starwars.
3
WinPuzzleheaded7117 Apr 8, 2026 -1
His talentless daughter is the real bad robot
-1
LazloHollifeld Apr 8, 2026 +6
Maybe he should pitch a Small Wonder reboot with Gracie as VICI.
6
nj_crc Apr 9, 2026 +1
He'll always be all right in my book based on his involvement with the Phantasm remaster.
1
Melodic_Crow_3409 Apr 12, 2026 +1
He has caused so much damage to beloved IPs. He needs to go away. 
1
Outrageous-Bet6403 Apr 9, 2026 +1
Mystery boxes are the empty calories of storytelling and general audiences finally realized that.
1
Sam_Brock Apr 9, 2026
I seem to be the only one but I’m excited for his Great Beyond movie! Will be good to have him back. the whole “director’s jail” thing is dumb. People need to move on
0
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