It was rumoured that Matthew Vaughn was in the running to direct one of the Star Wars sequels, and whilst that never happened he recently shared his take on the Star Wars franchise and his ideas for a reboot on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
“Kingsman” and “X-Men: First Class” director Matthew Vaughn appeared on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast and was surprisingly open when asked about his relationship to a handful of major Hollywood franchises, from James Bond to “Star Wars” and the DC Universe. As a whole, he said the major Hollywood studios have been suffering by prioritizing their wallets.
“The studios, it’s like any artistic form. The music business, movies, fashion… the financing and the commerce has taken over the creative,” Vaughn said. “That always means eventually for short-term gains you do well, but long term you kill everything. That’s what’s happening now… film, music, art. Commerce took over and now the pendulum is starting to swing back. Creativity should always be the driving force of any decision and then you think about how to make money out of it afterwards. If you try to make money upfront, you’ll kill some great franchises.”
For Vaughn, the “Star Wars” franchise is one that has gone in the wrong direction. When asked if it would be tough to turn down an offer to direct a “Star Wars” movie, the filmmaker said, “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.”
Vaughn noted that characters such as James Bond and various superheroes are often rebooted with different characters. “Why are the [‘Star Wars’] characters so hallowed that from 1977 you can’t re-do it for a new audience?” he asked.
“‘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. If you want a new generation, make the movie for them. The old generation, hopefully you make it well enough that they enjoy it.”
Watch/listen to Vaughn on the Happy Sad Confused podcast here. What did you think of his comments? Let us know your opinion on our social channels.
