Former Darth Vader Actor Throws Shade at J.J. Abrams and Disney’s Star Wars Sequel Trilogy

John F. Trent |

Nov 29, 2019

Former Darth Vader actor C. Andrew Nelson threw some shade at director J.J. Abrams and the Disney Star Wars sequel trilogy.

According to IMDB, C. Andrew Nelson played Vader in the TV movie At The Skywalker Ranch, in the video games Star Wars: Rebel Assault II – the Hidden Empire and Star Wars: Dark Forces, and in the special edition of The Empire Strikes Back.

As discovered by Disney Star Wars is Dumb, Nelson took to Facebook to post a meme mocking Abrams and Disney’s upcoming The Rise of Skywalker film that shows the Star Wars fandom ignoring a drowning The Rise of Skywalker instead gleefully playing with The Mandalorian.

He captioned the meme writing, “Painfully true.”

https://www.facebook.com/candrew.nelson/posts/10159061989833448

He would then specifically comment on director J.J. Abrams in response to one fan agreeing with the meme, but indicating they will still go and see The Rise of Skywalker with an open mind.

Nelson wrote:

“My sentiments exactly. JJ Abrams is not a bad filmmaker. He’s more of a lazy filmmaker. Not lazy in his work ethic, but in his storytelling. He relies far too heavily on his “mystery box” concept of storytelling and the notion of mystery driving infinite possibilities.”

Nelson adds:

“In other words he allows himself to always pull a rabbit [out] of a hat whenever it’s convenient. That works great if you’re Bug Bunny handing Yosemite Sam a lit stick of dynamite out of nowhere. It’s a cheat when telling a human story.”

He concludes:

“His films aren’t awful. They just aren’t compelling, and he pulls too many sticks of dynamite out of nowhere.”

J.J. Abrams and The Mystery Box

J.J. Abrams talked about his “mystery box” style of film making in a Ted Talk back in 2008.

However, in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Abrams tried to downplay the Ted Talk and this “mystery box” style of film making.

He stated:

“It’s not a driving force at all. I’m not actively thinking, “How do I employ mystery-box strategy to this story?” What I meant was just that a good story makes you want to understand what’s going on, what makes it tick, what’s inside. And it was my friend and talented producer Bryan Burk who, when I was trying to figure out what the hell I was going to talk about at the Ted Talk, said, “Why don’t you talk about that box you have?””

What do you make of Nelson’s criticism of J.J. Abrams and the Disney Star Wars sequel trilogy?