Shawn Levy might make a Star Wars, but J.D. Dillard is no longer making a Star Wars

Lucasfilm really wants somebody to make a Star Wars movie, but it doesn't seem like it will happen any time soon

By Sam Barsanti  |  November 8, 2022 | 9:21pm
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Shawn Levy might make a Star Wars, but J.D. Dillard is no longer making a Star Wars
Shawn Levy Photo: Arturo Holmes

For a while now, Disney has been giving out Star Wars movies to directors like Halloween candy, but it’s not until they get home and spend a few months or years opening the wrapper that they find out that there’s really nothing inside. Rian Johnson’s trilogy will never happen, even if he’s still optimistic about it. Last we heard, Taika Waititi was still “trying to write” his Star Wars movie. Patty Jenkins’ X-Wing movie has been indefinitely delayed. Hell, things at Lucasfilm are still in such a pre-planning stage that the studio put together a room of TV writers to try and come up with an idea for a future Star Wars movie. That doesn’t seem like something you’d do if you had a plan.

Today, in what seems like an attempt to balance the cosmic scales, we have both a new filmmaker being attached to make a Star Wars movie and a previously attached filmmaker who is no longer making a Star Wars movie. Let’s start with that one first: According to The Wrap, Sleight director J.D. Dillard has confirmed that his Star Wars movie—first put into development in 2020—is “unfortunately no longer a thing.” He added that it was “not for lack of trying,” but apparently that’s it. We never heard what his movie would be about, but when asked by The Wrap, Dillard did tease that he loved playing the old Star Wars game TIE Fighter as a kid.

But on the other side of the coin is Shawn Levy, who apparently didn’t do the math on how likely it is for a filmmaker to get and then finish making a Star Wars movie in the Disney era. Deadline says he’s “in talks” for a mysterious project, but if those those work out, it still won’t happen for a while: Levy is making Deadpool 3 and will direct a few episodes of the final season of Stranger Things. But, also if they do work out, the odds of getting Ryan Reynolds in a Star Wars movie increase by about 1,000 percent, since Levy is becoming for Reynolds what Christopher McQuarrie is for Tom Cruise (a reliable hit-making creator worth permanently hitching your star to).

So keep an eye out in six months or a year for the announcement that Shawn Levy’s Star Wars movie isn’t happening, but that someone else is making a Star Wars movie that definitely will happen. Maybe McQuarrie? Tom Cruise could be in it!

 
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