X-Men Director Matthew Vaughn Believes Star Wars' Future Needs A Proper Reboot
It's a day ending in "Y," so obviously director Matthew Vaughn has gone and made some pretty incisive comments about one of the biggest franchises on the planet. Having worked on multiple fan-favorite properties like "X-Men," "Kick-Ass," and the "Kingsman" movies over the years (not to mention flirting with even more significant ones in the past), he's never been one to flinch from a challenge ... or, for that matter, the intense scrutiny attached to the nerdiest material around. So it should come as no surprise that he's once again making the rounds and voicing his potentially controversial opinions in his usual, refreshingly candid way.
This time, he's set his sights on the granddaddy of them all, a franchise that has never stirred up strong feelings among an especially, uh, passionate fanbase before: "Star Wars."
It's not exactly a state secret that Lucasfilm has been struggling to find their way with their prized IP ever since "The Rise of Skywalker" concluded the Skywalker Saga back in 2019. We've yet to see any other "Star Wars" movie in the years since, which is both a good thing (the studio is taking its time to get things right before rushing another feature into production, what a concept!) and a sign of trouble behind the scenes (we won't be getting a single new movie until 2026 at the earliest, Lucasfilm still hasn't figured out their ridiculously high levels of behind-the-scenes turnovers, and it still feels like nobody has settled on any strong, new direction yet, oh no!).
But fear not, folks, because Vaughn has entered the chat. Not that Kathleen Kennedy has requested his input or anything, but he claims to have figured out exactly where "Star Wars" has gone wrong. From his perspective, Lucasfilm needs to embrace the R-word: Reboot.
'Everyone is going to go bats**t crazy, but let's bring it on'
Once upon a time, Lucasfilm attempted to recast an original trilogy character in Han Solo and things went horribly wrong. Certain fans were outraged that actor Alden Ehrenreich didn't look exactly like the spitting image of Harrison Ford circa 1977, "Solo: A Star Wars Story" turned into one of the studio's most notorious flops (due to no fault of Ehrenreich, it should be noted), and we've been subjected to nothing but distractingly deep-faked Mark Hamills and de-aged Hayden Christensens ever since. It's been a weird couple of years.
In any case, Matthew Vaughn has the solution. In a recent podcast appearance on Josh Horowitz's "Happy Sad Confused" platform (via Variety), the subject of "Star Wars" inevitably came up. As someone whose name has come up in rumors for various productions in the past, perhaps it's only natural that Vaughn has spent quite some time thinking about what he'd personally do with the property, if he ever had the chance. Well, now we know that he'd take the biggest swing possible. As he put it:
"For me, doing a 'Star Wars' movie is to play with the characters I love. If they said to me they'd reboot 'Star Wars' and actually have Luke Skywalker, Solo, and Vader and do your version of it. Everyone would say you're an idiot to try, but that would excite me." [...] 'Star Wars' is the Skywalker family and that's where I think they've gone wrong. They've forgot. They've done brilliantly in TV, but it needs an epic new film. That's what I would do [i.e. reboot Luke]. Everyone is going to go bats***t crazy, but let's bring it on."
Blaster shots fired!
Let's hear him out...
Look, before anyone takes their torches and pitchforks to the Vaughn residence, let's take a moment to think about what he's getting at. As much as I'd prefer for "Star Wars" to move well beyond the Skywalker family altogether and focus on new and original characters from unexplored corners of the galaxy (you know, it's almost like one divisive director was going to do precisely that at one point), I think the rapidly mounting evidence proves Matthew Vaughn's point. Based on what we've seen on Disney+ streaming, where Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau's shows have essentially swallowed their own tails and tripled down on nostalgic fan-service, "Star Wars" is woefully stuck in the past and in desperate need of new ideas.
As long as the franchise can conceivably loop back around to the original trilogy characters, no matter how forced or contrived it feels, it seems clear that the creatives in charge will find any excuse to do so. That worked out (reasonably) okay with the sequel trilogy, which was originally planned as a series of farewells to franchise legends Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher. But once that wrapped up the way it did, it should've given the decisionmakers carte blanche to move the franchise forward and tell brand-new stories. That's not exactly what happened, to say the least, and now we've found ourselves at a point where directors suggesting that maybe new actors should carry the torches from the original cast is somehow a radical notion.
In other words, "The Last Jedi" had the right idea all along. Let the past die, people! Then perhaps "Star Wars" can finally become something more than it's been.