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Star Wars creator George Lucas has given the thumbs-up to the appointment of JJ Abrams as director of the seventh outing for the sci-fi franchise.

Lucas said the Star Trek helmsman is the “ideal choice” to take the reins of the movie, which will be the first Walt Disney Co foray into the Star Wars universe since it swallowed Lucasfilm in October.

When Disney inked the deal, the company promised to deliver the final three episodes of Lucas’s original nine-film vision, while the man himself declared: “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers.”