J.J. Abrams

Who Is J.J. Abrams?

J.J. Abrams is the most commercially significant American filmmaker and showrunner of his generation and the creator whose work has most consistently raised theological questions in the context of mainstream popular entertainment. Born in New York City in 1966, he grew up in Los Angeles, began writing screenplays as a teenager, and has built a career that spans television, film, and the stewardship of some of the most significant franchises in American popular culture.

His television work includes the creation of Felicity (1998), Alias (2001), and LOST (2004) — the last of which became one of the most theologically discussed television series in American history. His film work includes the revival of the Mission: Impossible franchise, the reboot of Star Trek (2009), Super 8 (2011), and the revival of the Star Wars franchise with The Force Awakens (2015) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

Abrams is significant for TLA because his most sustained creative work — particularly LOST and Fringe — consistently generates theological questions that his secular entertainment framework cannot fully answer: questions about redemption, fate versus free will, the cost of crossing boundaries that were not meant to be crossed, and what it means to be saved. His mystery box approach to narrative — the deliberate withholding of explanation in favor of sustained wonder — produces, in his best work, a form of negative theology in popular entertainment: the insistence that the most important things resist easy explanation.

In Their Own Words

Selected Bibliography

• Felicity — 1998–2002 — television series, creator
• Alias — 2001–2006 — television series, creator
• LOST — 2004–2010 — television series, co-creator
• Mission: Impossible III — 2006 — film, director
• Fringe — 2008–2013 — television series, co-creator
• Star Trek — 2009 — film, director
• Star Trek Into Darkness — 2013 — film, director
• Super 8 — 2011 — film, director/writer
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens — 2015 — film, director/co-writer
• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker — 2019 — film, director/co-writer