Yesterday (Jan 25) it was announced that Jj Abrams would be the man to take over from George Lucas and step behind the camera for the upcoming reboot of the Star Wars franchise, and Lucas believes that Abrams is the man for the job.

"[Star Wars] couldn't be in better hands," Lucas said in an official statement yesterday, adding that Abrams is the "ideal choice" to shoulder the responsibility. Let's hope so!

Abrams had initially ruled himself out of the running, as had a number of other potential directors, including Guillermo del Toro, but is said to have finally caved into the idea after Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy, the new movie's producer, won him over with her pitch, The Hollywood Reporter claims. She said in her official statement, "It’s very exciting to have JJ aboard leading the charge as we set off to make a new Star Wars movie. JJ is the perfect director to helm this. Beyond having such great instincts as a filmmaker, he has an intuitive understanding of this franchise."

Abrams, who is also the man behing the recent reboot of the Star Trek franchise for rival studio Paramount Pictures, will be working with Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt on the picture, with Kasdan, one of the original writers of the first three films, acting as a consultant over the new script and Arndt, who wrote Toy Story 3, as the writer. The film will be released in 2015.