J.J. Abrams Says No to Midi-Chlorians in STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
While answering a series of Yes and No questions for MTV, J.J. Abrams reveals that there will be no talk of midi-chlorians in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I'm sure a lot of fans are happy to hear that.
Midi-chlorians were first introduced in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and a lot of people were like, WTF!? They are intelligent microscopic life forms that live symbiotically inside the cells of all living things in the Star Wars universe. Qui-Gon Jinn described them as follows:
"Without the midi-chlorians, life could not exist, and we would have no knowledge of the Force. They continually speak to us, telling us the will of the Force. When you learn to quiet your mind, you'll hear them speaking to you."
George Lucas described them like this:
“I’m assuming that the midi-chlorians are a race that everybody knows about [in the world of Star Wars]. The way you interact and interface with this larger energy field [the Force] is through the midi-chlorians, which are sensitive to the energy. They are at the core of your life, which is the cell, the living cell. They are in a symbiotic relationship with the cell. And then, because they’re all interconnected as one, they can communicate with the larger Force field. That’s how you deal with the Force.”
There's no word on if they will be brought up again in any of the future Star Wars movies that are being developed, but I seriously doubt it. We really don't need to hear any more conversations about the midi-chlorians; let's just move on and pretend they never happened.
The reason why some fans were upset with midi-chlorians was because it contradicts a conversation between Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan, and Richard Marquand before they started shooting Return of the Jedi:
Kasdan: The Force was available to anyone who could hook into it?
Lucas: Yes, everybody can do it.
Kasdan: Not just the Jedi?
Lucas: It’s just the Jedi who take the time to do it.
Marquand: They use it as a technique.
Lucas: Like Yoga. If you want to take the time to do it, you can do it; but the ones that really want to do it are the ones who are into that kind of thing. Also like karate.
The whole midi-chlorian thing takes away the fact that anyone can hook into the force. The introduction of them was completely pointless. You can find a whole rundown of the midi-chlorians right here, where I got some of the quotes above.