Honestly, most of us are just grown children, even Award-winning directors. On a recent episode of The Town podcast, Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve allows his intrusive thoughts to win when he explains how his childhood disappointment in Return of the Jedi is still preventing him from ever directing a Star Wars movie, over 40 years later.
As was the case for most children in 1977 when Star Wars: A New Hope crash landed from a galaxy far, far away, the first film “went to my brain like a silver bullet,” according to the 57-year-old filmmaker. He was a Star Wars fanatic, and “was traumatized by The Empire Strikes Back,” likely when the villain every kid hated was revealed to be the father of the Jedi every kid wanted to be. Then, Return of the Jedi happened.
“I was 15 years old, and my best friend and I wanted to take a cab and go to L.A. and talk to George Lucas—we were so angry! Still today, the Ewoks. It turned out to be a comedy for kids,” he recounts.
Villeneuve outgrew a franchise its creator George Lucas has said was intended for 12 year olds. Vileneuve definitively denounced the prospect of helming a film in the franchise, stating, “I’m not dreaming to do a Star Wars because it feels like code is very codified.” Appears he would rather explore outer space classism with godly sandworms and messiahs.
Villeneuve has never been shy about voicing his Star Wars criticisms. In a 2023 interview on The Playlist, he criticized the franchise for losing its elegance and abandoning the psychological path of Luke Skywalker, feeling so strongly he remarked, “I never left Star Wars, Star Wars left me.”
As he reaches the conclusion of his own trilogy (that he doesn’t consider a trilogy) with the third Dune film, let’s hope he sticks the landing the way he wishes Star Wars had.