It would be wrong to say the Star Wars franchise is in trouble - it has, after all, found huge success on Disney+ in recent years - but if the movies Kathleen Kennedy announced at Celebration this past April don't pan out, that may well be the end of her tenure as Lucasfilm President.
The sequel trilogy has split opinions, with many arguing they were robbed of a satisfying ending to the Skywalker Saga. Of course, the franchise is one that's always suffered from inconsistencies and plot holes, so is the best way to fix that to just start over and retell the story?
Kingsman, X-Men: First Class, and Argylle director Matthew Vaughn believes so.
Asked by Happy Sad Confused (via SFFGazette.com) whether it would be tough to turn down a Star Wars movie at this stage in his career, he responded, "Now, not so much. 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."
"Why are the [‘Star Wars’] characters so hallowed that from 1977 you can’t re-do it for a new audience?" Vaughn asked, comparing the franchise to James Bond, a series which has continuously recast its leads and enlisted new creative teams.
"‘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 batshit crazy but let’s bring it on," Vaughn added. "If you want a new generation, make the movie for them. The old generation, hopefully you make it well enough that they enjoy it."
Is it just us or does that actually sound like an idea with potential? Many franchises have been rebooted over the years and seeing what a different filmmaker would do with the story originally told by George Lucas may be fascinating...or disastrous.
Lucasfilm has recast old faces with new actors in some projects (Solo: A Star Wars Story) and digitally de-aged them in others (The Mandalorian). Even if we're not talking about a full-blown reboot that starts with retelling A New Hope, why not let someone like Vaughn recast those familiar leads and tell a new story? It might work better than attempting to make everything tie together, especially when that presents its fair share of restrictions.
Do you think Star Wars should be rebooted? As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section.