J.J. Abrams won’t direct Star Wars Episode VII

Everyone’s having fun throwing around dream directors for Star Wars Episode VII. Longtime Lucas cohort Steven Spielberg has already distanced himself from the franchise, and now another director whose name often comes up in speculation is removing himself from consideration: J.J. Abrams.

The man who brought Star Trek back to the big screen and is in post-production on the sequel Star Trek into Darkness tells EW’s Geoff Boucher that Star Wars was a formative part of his filmmaker DNA, but he doesn’t think it would be the right direction for his career now.

The EW report says Lucasfilm sent a story treatment last week to Abrams, Brad Bird and Steven Spielberg. The studio, recently acquired by Disney, on Friday announced that Oscar-winning screenwriter Michael Arndt would pen the script.

Who’s your dream director for Episode VII?