In the coming months J.J. Abrams is going to have a very interesting perspective on the eternal geek debate of Star Trek vs. Star Wars. He is (figuratively) helming both the U.S.S. Enterprise in this year’s Star Trek Into Darkness and an X-Wing Fighter (or something) in Star Wars Episode VII. With the former coming out in just a few short months, the director will soon be turning his full attention to a galaxy far, far away. In addition, he’ll be pressed to talk about it while promoting the new Trek.

In one of his first major interviews leading up to the release of the May 17 Trek sequel, Abrams spoke to Empire Magazine about his frame of mind and approach to Star Wars. He says he’s approaching it from a place of excitement and passion and also admitted Steven Spielberg was one of the primary reasons for him taking the job. Read his quotes below.

Thanks to Empire Online for these quotes which, if not exactly enlightening, are at least interesting. First up, he was asked about his approach to the film.

I don’t know because we’re just getting started. So it’s a great question that I hope I’ll have a good answer to when I know what the answer is. There are infinitely more questions than answers right now, but to me, they’re not that dissimilar. Though I came at these both from very different places, where they both meet is a place of ‘Ooh, that’s really exciting.’ And even though I was never a Star Trek fan, I felt like there was a version of it that would make me excited, that I would think ‘that’s cool, that feels right, I actually would want to see that. How we were going to get there, what the choices were going to be, who was going to be in it – all of those things I knew would have to be figured out, but it was all based on a foundation of this indescribable, guttural passion for something that could be. It’s a similar feeling that I have with Star Wars. I feel like I can identify a hunger for what I would want to see again and that is an incredibly exciting place to begin a project. The movies, the worlds could not be more different but that feeling that there’s something amazing here is the thing that they share.

He then spoke about his change of heart. Abrams, of course, first publicly turned down the job.

My knee-jerk reaction was that I’m in the middle of working on the Star Trek movie and I can’t even consider it. But then time went by and I got further along working on the movie and getting to a place where I had done most of the heavy lifting. So when I met with Kathy Kennedy we just started discussing it and I was able to actually engage in the conversation. I went down to tell Katie, my wife, and I said ‘I had just a very interesting conversation with Kathy.’ That was the beginning. I will say that Steven [Spielberg] was very encouraging of Star Wars. It’s funny because I talked to him about it and it turned out he knew all about what was going on.

Star Trek Into Darkness opens May 17 in North America while Star Wars Episode VII is tentatively scheduled for 2015. Though, from the above quotes, that sounds like a bit of a stretch, does it not? What do you think?