We Almost Saw David Lynch’s Return of the Jedi

David Lynch was one of the few directors to have an adjective named after him. “Lynchian” refers to anything surreal yet mundane, typical yet dreamlike. It’s hard to define, but you know it when you see it. After the legendary filmmaker tragically passed away this week at age 78, fans began to plumb the Lynchian depths, revisiting his entire oeuvre from Eraserhead to Twin Peaks: The Return, to that time he directed a PlayStation 2 commercial.

But just as interesting as the projects Lynch created are the projects that never happened. In the ‘80s, he wrote a screenplay for an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, but decided in the end the story worked best as a book. As recently as 2024, he was looking for funds for an animated movie titled Snootworld.

But over 40 years ago, one Lynch project that slipped through the cracks could have shaped one of the biggest sci-fi franchises ever — Star Wars. Alas, it wasn’t to be. In fact, Lynch’s very body rejected it.

In 2010, Lynch was asked about being approached to direct Return of the Jedi in an interview now immortalized on YouTube. “I was asked by George to come up to see him about directing what would be the third Star Wars. And I had next door to zero interest,” he says. He describes the intense security he had to go through to meet George Lucas, a man he always respected.

“George is a guy that does what he loves, and I do what I love,” he says. “The difference is what George loves makes hundreds of billions of dollars.” At the time, Lucas was enjoying the peak of Star Wars fever, while Lynch had just directed critically acclaimed arthouse darlings, Eraserhead and The Elephant Man.

When he met up with Lucas, he started to feel a headache coming on. “He took me upstairs and he showed me these things called Wookiees and now this headache is getting stronger.” He describes going for a ride in Lucas’ Ferrari to a restaurant that only served salad, and his headache only got stronger. “Even before I got home, I kind of crawled in into a phone booth and phoned my agent,” Lynch said. “I said there's no way, no way I can do this.”

Of course, we would eventually see Lynch’s take on a space opera with Dune — the Frank Herbert adaptation that would come to be seen as a flop — so it’s probably for the best he didn’t take on the project. But it’s tempting to wonder what Lynch’s take on the Ewoks on Endor or the Sarlacc pit would look like. Lynchian may be difficult to define, but Star Wars is iconic. Combining the two was clearly too much for Lynch’s brain to handle, but that doesn’t stop fans from wondering what might have been.