JJ Abrams initially rejected the opportunity to direct Star Wars: The Force Awakens because he did not want to be regarded as “the guy who does sequels”.
The revelation comes as Disney said the film took $250m (£167.8m) worldwide on Thursday and Friday and was on track to set a new US opening weekend record.
The 49-year-old director, who successfully revived the Star Trek franchise, told the Lucasfilm president, Kathleen Kennedy, he did not think it was the right project for him.
“When Kathy called I did something I don’t normally do, which is look at my career. I really did feel like ‘that sounds like the wrong idea’,” Abrams told the Times Magazine.
However, after discussing the offer with his wife, Katie McGrath, he agreed to helm what is set to be the UK’s highest-grossing film, and may even eclipse Avatar’s global box office record.
“I wanted people to feel the magic of what Star Wars was: the sense of romance, the sense of heart, the loyalty, the sweetness, the friendship, the unexpected scenarios, the discoveries the characters make, the sense of impossible scale made possible,” Abrams said.
“I saw the original trilogy and I thought if there was any way to be part of bringing that back, it would be incredible. Katie said: ‘If you want to do this and you don’t, you’re going to regret this.’”
The Force Awakens has already broken the UK opening day record by taking £9.64m on Thursday, eclipsing the £9.48m for the second part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in July 2011.
Midnight screenings alone accounted for almost a quarter (£2.4m) of the Thursday tally. There were at least 766,000 tickets sold for the film on its opening day at the Cineworld, Vue, Odeon and Picturehouse chains, which are all part of the Digital Cinema Media estate.
The final Harry Potter film holds the Friday to Sunday record of £23.75m, which is also set to be broken by the new Star Wars movie.
It remains to be seen whether the Force Awakens can outgun Spectre, the latest James Bond film, which took £41.3m in its first seven days at the UK box office. The previous Bond installment, Skyfall, remains the UK’s highest-grossing film with a £102.8m haul.
Jurassic World, released in June, holds the record for the biggest opening weekend worldwide, raking in $511.8m (£345m) over its first three days. The UK and Ireland accounted for $29.6m of that.
The Force Awakens is expected to take at least $225m at the US box office this weekend, which would beat the record of $208.8m set by Jurassic World in June. Disney said cinemas in the US were adding screenings to meet unprecedented demand.
Anthony DiClemente, an analyst at Nomura Securities, said that after seeing the film he believed it could exceed Avatar’s $2.8bn global total.
Star Wars earned $72.7m in 44 countries outside North America on Thursday. It opens in China next month.
