He’s dealt with zombies, the queen’s swans, and plenty of intense fans, so director Edward Wright wouldn’t be a bad choice to tussle Stormtroopers. Perhaps that’s why rumors that he is somehow involved with an upcoming Star Wars film keep getting louder and louder.
CNET asked Wright if he’d ever like to direct a Star Wars movie, and he said, “I guess so, yeah. Yeah. I have something crazy, but I can’t tell you.”
When the director was pushed to elaborate, he refused, but added, “You’ll see at Christmas.”
Best known for his work directing Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), and The World’s End (2013), Wright’s latest project comes in the form of 2017’s Baby Driver, starring Kevin Spacey, Jon Bernthal, Ansel Elgort, and Jon Hamm. He’s also signed on for a 2019 project with DreamWorks Animation, called Shadows. Now, it seems as if Wright might add a Lucasfilm feature to his portfolio.
Wright’s comment is, of course, not a full-on confirmation that he’s working with Lucasfilm. But the tease that “you’ll see at Christmas” is a bit suspiciously timed, as the next Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, premieres in theaters on December 15, just 10 days before Christmas.
And that’s not to mention that hiring on Wright would fall in with Disney’s habit of bringing in high-grossing “indie” directors for their recent Star Wars projects (not counting the high-profile J.J. Abrams, who kicked off the revolution with The Force Awakens). Gareth Edwards (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Rian Johnson (The Last Jedi), and Colin Trevorrow (Episode IX) all fall into the same “indie” category as Wright, though he’s admittedly a bit bigger of a name.
As for what, exactly, Wright’s “something crazy” is, it’s easy enough to assume it would be the third as-yet-unannounced standalone Star Wars anthology film. Rogue One and the unnamed Han Solo project are the first two, and the third was originally meant to be a Boba Fett story before Disney axed the concept. Many fans still assume that a Fett story of some sort is still in the works, while others assume it might be an Obi-Wan Kenobi story, though it seems Obi-Wan actor Ewan McGregor doesn’t know anything about that.
It seems fans really will have to wait until “Christmas” to find out what’s going on.
