Details concerning the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens are usually hard to come by but earlier today, JJ Abrams shared a pretty interesting tidbit. At the red carpet premiere for Mission Impossible: Rouge Nation, a reporter from MTV asked the director whether midi-chlorians would be a part of the new film. Abrams' reply was short and simple: "No."
To those not well versed in the overall Star Wars saga, midi-chlorians were an element introduced during 1999's "The Phantom Menance." To keep it simple, midi-chlorians are a sort of genetic trait present in all living cells. Individuals with a high presence of this have a greater affinity toward The Force.
In the film, Liam Neeson's Qui-Gon Jinn tests young Anakin Skywalker's blood and discovers his incredible potential as a Force user.
Ever since this reveal, many fans of the franchise have criticized the decision to introduce a biological explanation for The Force. They believe it detracted from the mystic elements introduced in the original trilogy and reduces the all-powerful Force to a simple hereditary characteristic like eye or hair color.
After Phantom Menaces' release, franchise creator George Lucas expounded on the concept:
"I'm assuming that the midi-chlorians are a race that everybody knows about [in the world of Star Wars]. The way you interact and interface with this larger energy field [the Force] is through the midi-chlorians, which are sensitive to the energy. They are at the core of your life, which is the cell, the living cell. They are in a symbiotic relationship with the cell. And then, because they're all interconnected as one, they can communicate with the larger Force field. That's how you deal with the Force."
To see Abrams' take on the subject, make sure to catch Star Wars: The Force Awakens in theatres this December.
