At a panel discussion for J.J. Abrams' upcoming Hulu show 11.22.63, the Star Wars director revealed that the Force Awakens DVD cut will be what audience members saw in theaters, and will not be an extended edition of the record-breaking film.

"There will be deleted scenes, but not an extended version," Abrams said on Jan. 9 at the Television Critics Association press event in an exclusive reported by Entertainment Weekly.

Abrams also divulged the longest cut of the film, which currently has a theatrical run of two hours and 16 minutes, hinting that his reluctance to include material that ended up on the editing floor might have to do with streamlining the story arc. While the director couldn't place the exact run time, he estimated it came close to three hours. 

"I don't know what the longest cut was," Abrams said. "Probably, if it were with credits, close to two hours and 50 minutes was the first cut."  

As EW pointed out, Star Wars creator George Lucas is widely known for his video and DVD re-releases, which differed from each movie when it was first released.

Abrams also extolled the virtues of the cast and crew on the project, exclaiming that after three years of work, he still couldn't believe the film had finally wrapped, let alone had been released to a gross of $770 million sales so far.

"I can't believe that it's done," Abrams said. "It was three years of very tense work by a lot of people. I'm just so happy that all the work that everyone did. Even the people who you don't see in the movie — the puppeteers who were painted out, I watched them in 125-degree heat in Abu Dhabi bringing BB-8 to life, and then we mercilessly painted them out in the movie. I'm just so glad that people get to see all the work that this amazing cast and crew did. Whatever the numbers are, honestly I'm just so grateful the movie is out there and has been well received."  

Source: Entertainment Weekly

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