In case you had been holding out hope for a Denis Villeneuve-directed, completely depressing Star Wars installment, you may need to sit down, as he hasn’t actually loved the collection since 1983’s Return of the Jedi.
He briefly spoke in regards to the matter throughout a latest episode of The City podcast (by way of IGN), the place he commented on the spell that each A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Again forged on him and the way it all bought demolished with the conclusion to the unique trilogy of flicks, which he thought was “a comedy for youths.”
Whereas most individuals will agree that Return of the Jedi is not as improbable as the 2 earlier installments, it is constantly bundled with them and praised as a satisfying conclusion to the unique trilogy, so Villeneuve’s scorching scorching take right here is not a quite common one. Furthermore, it is odd to utterly write it off as “a comedy for youths” after loving the very first film, which is admittedly rattling humorous and lighthearted too. Maybe the distinction is that he wasn’t a child anymore when he watched the Ewok-filled threequel.
In any case, he isn’t in a rush to leap into the Star Wars galaxy in the intervening time. “Star Wars grew to become crystallized in its personal mythology, very dogmatic… It appeared like a recipe, no extra surprises. So I am not dreaming to do a Star Wars as a result of it looks like code could be very codified.” The ‘second half’ of his feedback is much extra cheap; he isn’t flawed in stating that one in every of Star Wars’ greatest struggles is making an attempt to flee its personal shadow and previous. Thoughts you, it is discovered success over the a long time by slowly however steadily increasing its galaxy and timeline, however with much more new Star Wars TV reveals and flicks on the horizon after a reasonably busy first decade of the IP beneath Disney, bolder swings similar to Andor are wanted to maintain issues contemporary.
Villeneuve’s feedback additionally mark a change of coronary heart if we evaluate them to what he stated about the potential of directing a Star Wars film again in 2017: “It’s one thing that, once more it’s like, I might be intrigued… I don’t know, it’s very tough. What’s harmful with ‘Star Wars‘ proper now could be it is turn into its personal vocabulary. I might like to see them — I feel ‘Rogue One‘ was a really attention-grabbing try to get out of the mildew… I feel it might be a fantastic thought to get out of there and to go on a brand new a part of the galaxy, that I might be open to.” Whereas he acknowledged the identical underlying subject with Star Wars, he appeared much more open in regards to the thought again then. What’s modified?
Nicely, for starters, Star Wars has turn into extra bloated since 2017, resembling the Marvel Cinematic Universe mannequin fairly a bit, not less than on the large and small screens. That appears to be the alternative of what Villeneuve is in search of even together with his greatest films, similar to his ongoing Dune trilogy. Additionally, with so many initiatives ready to be made after he is finished with Frank Herbert’s sci-fi universe, it is regular that he would not really feel the necessity to soar into a wholly totally different one with a fair greater historical past and extra ferocious fanbase.
Nonetheless, I personally assume his ‘rejection’ of what Star Wars has turn into (and type of all the time has been) is strictly why I feel a Villeneuve-helmed Star Wars can be fairly attention-grabbing to see. Andor is not the one latest mission that is been a hit, but it surely’s the one which has attracted extra ‘outsider’ consideration for positive and proved the Star Wars canvas is much wider (and deeper) than you’d assume at first. You solely have to discover a voice that is not beholden to the established canon to inform a brand new story… however respects it sufficient to collaborate inside that sandbox. Tony Gilroy did precisely that together with his staff, and I am sure that is an method Villeneuve may get behind.
The filmmaker’s subsequent film is just about confirmed to be an adaptation of Dune: Messiah, the second novel within the collection, and it is at the moment dated for December 18, 2026.