Dune Director Is not Over His Childhood Star Wars Disappointment

Actually, most of us are simply grown kids, even Award-winning administrators. On a latest episode of The City podcast, Dune: Half Two director Denis Villeneuve permits his intrusive ideas to win when he explains how his childhood disappointment in Return of the Jedi continues to be stopping him from ever directing a Star Wars film, over 40 years later.

As was the case for most kids in 1977 when Star Wars: A New Hope crash landed from a galaxy far, distant, the primary movie “went to my mind like a silver bullet,” in accordance with the 57-year-old filmmaker. He was a Star Wars fanatic, and “was traumatized by The Empire Strikes Again,” probably when the villain each child hated was revealed to be the daddy of the Jedi each child wished to be. Then, Return of the Jedi occurred.

“I used to be 15 years previous, and my greatest good friend and I wished to take a cab and go to L.A. and discuss to George Lucas—we have been so indignant! Nonetheless at this time, the Ewoks. It turned out to be a comedy for youths,” he recounts.

Villeneuve outgrew a franchise its creator George Lucas has stated was meant for 12 12 months olds. Vileneuve definitively denounced the prospect of helming a movie within the franchise, stating, “I’m not dreaming to do a Star Wars as a result of it looks like code may be very codified.” Seems he would fairly discover outer house classism with godly sandworms and messiahs.

Villeneuve has by no means been shy about voicing his Star Wars criticisms. In a 2023 interview on The Playlist, he criticized the franchise for dropping its magnificence and abandoning the psychological path of Luke Skywalker, feeling so strongly he remarked, “I by no means left Star Wars, Star Wars left me.” 

As he reaches the conclusion of his personal trilogy (that he doesn’t contemplate a trilogy) with the third Dune movie, let’s hope he sticks the touchdown the way in which he needs Star Wars had.