Where Did J.J. Abrams Go?

I have no idea what the answer to this question is, but it occurred to me this morning that J.J. Abrams — the wunderkind behind the successful reboots of Star Trek, Star Wars, and the guy behind Lost, Alias, and Felicity — has not been around lately.

The last film that Abrams directed was The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. It was not good, but to be fair to J.J. Abrams, he was brought in after Colin Trevorrow was fired, and he and Chris Terrio only had 18 months to rewrite the script, shoot, edit, and put the film into theaters. It was a lousy movie, but we also know that Abrams is capable of when he has more time to direct a movie.

Since 2019, Abrams has been largely MIA, although he put a lot of effort into Demimonde, a series he put two years into before HBO — under David Zaslav — pulled the plug on the project in a cost-savings move. HBO Max also pulled the plug on Abrams’ Overlook, a prequel series to The Shining.

Abrams had also co-created Duster with LaToya Morgan for HBO. It had a straight-to-series order, had been fully cast, and went into production last April. Then the strike arrived in May. Shooting resumed early this year, according to to one of the series’ actors, Corbin Bernsen. Duster appears to be the only major project to come out of Abrams’ five-year $250 million deal signed with Warner Brothers in 2019.

Otherwise, Abrams has been quietly working on another Star Trek film, this one a prequel that Abrams is neither writing nor directing. He and his production company, however, are producing. Abrams also has a great number of unrealized projects, but there have been no major directing projects announced in years.

Maybe he’s taking a break — he’s never been a particularly prolific director — or maybe he’s in director’s jail, but he’s certainly not doing much these days. He does have a daughter, Gracie Abrams, a musician who has opened for Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo. Maybe he’s become a roadie for her.