Fan-favorite auteur Guillermo del Toro has talked with Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy about ideas for Star Wars. Back when Disney first announced that they were going to be making more films in a galaxy far, far away, after buying Lucasfilm in 2012 from George Lucas, fans everywhere began instantly talking about the dream directors that they’d want to see make one of those Star Wars film. One of the most recurring names in all of those lists was del Toro, and it wasn’t especially hard to see why. Similar to some of his fellow contemporaries, like Christopher Nolan or Edgar Wright, del Toro has become a well-respected name in both the general film lover and nerd communities throughout his career, that would make him a very exciting name to be attached to a Star Wars film, no matter what it was about or when it was set.
Now, cut to almost five years later and the Disney-owned era of the Star Wars universe is fully underway, following the releases of both Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and leading up this year’s highly-anticipated, Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi. But even with all of the filmmakers rumored to be attached or involved in the Star Wars universe over the next couple of years, word on whether or not del Toro would be one of them has been surprisingly quiet.
Apparently, that’s because he doesn’t have too much of an interest in playing in someone else’s universe for the time being. While recently speaking with Collider, del Toro said he has talked to Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy and John Knoll about the possibility of it already, but wouldn’t comment on whether or not he’d actually do it, because of how much unwarranted attention it might get:
This is likely the response that many fans of del Toro might have expected when asked this question, and it’s not much of a surprise that he’s a little hesitant about playing around in someone else’s world and universe for a while. He’s proven himself to be one of the most singular, unique voices in the entertainment industry today, and because of that, it can make working within such a heavily-monitored studio project like the next Star Wars film more difficult than it might be for other filmmakers.
“I will not comment on this, because then somebody will say, ‘Oh, Guillermo’s doing [Star Wars]!’ and I look like a kook. Neil Gaiman once said that, ‘I’d love to write Doctor Strange with Guillermo,’ and then all of a sudden on my IMDb I had ‘Doctor Strange’ [listed]. But saying all of that as a caveat, I would say there’s some characters that are great, and I have talked to Kathy Kennedy and John Knoll about ideas. But you know, I want to do my sht. I want to do my sht, I want to do it first, and I’m veering a lot towards animation. I love animation.”
After all, that’s exactly what ended up happening with Edgar Wright and Marvel when he left as the director on Ant-Man. But even with that being said, it is worth noting that del Toro clearly isn’t going to shoot down the idea once and for all, and the fact that he’s had meetings with the heads of Lucasfilm show that there’s an interest from the studio side as well. That’s not necessarily much to go off of, but it means that a Guillermo del Toro-directed Star Wars film is still very much a possibility at some point. That alone is the kind of prospect worth getting excited over.
Source: Collider
