Guillermo del Toro Continues to Have Conversations About a ‘Star Wars’ Movie With Lucasfilm

While pop culture junkies like to joke that Lucasfilm’s new extended universe approach means the sun will burn out before we go another year without a Star Wars movie, what we really need to resign ourselves for is decades of production rumors. Every director with an ounce of style and a half-successful movie under their belt will now be a popular match for a standalone Star Wars film. So when directors such as Guillermo de Toro  —  who possesses far more than just an “ounce” of style  —  are rumored to maybe-sorta be in the market for their own Star Wars movie, that means its time to buckle up for the long haul.

In a half-hour interview with Collider (via Heroic Hollywood), del Toro discussed whether he would ever consider directing a Star Wars film. And while I know the man means well, this isn’t exactly going to put an end to the rumors anytime soon:

I will not comment on this, because then somebody will say, ‘Oh, Guillermo’s doing [Star Wars]!’ and I look like a kook. Neil Gaiman once said that, ‘I’d love to write Doctor Strange with Guillermo,’ and then all of a sudden on my IMDb I had ‘Doctor Strange’ [listed]. But saying all of that as a caveat, I would say there’s some characters that are great, and I have talked to Kathy Kennedy and John Knoll about ideas. But you know, I want to do my sh*t. I want to do my sh*t, I want to do it first, and I’m veering a lot towards animation. I love animation.

Those with a long memory for production rumors will note that this isn’t the first time del Toro has talked to Lucasfilm about possibly directing a Star Wars movie. Back in 2013, the director was rumored to be on the shortlist for Star Wars: The Force Awakens before passing in favor of his original projects. According to del Toro, those conversations were nothing serious  —  “just a phone call” were his exact words at the time  —  but this most recent interview suggests that one phone call wasn’t exactly the end of the conversation. If the folks at Lucasfilm are looking to wear down del Toro’s resistance, then they’re in for quite the fight: it took the director four years to admit he’d had more than a conversation with the studio heads. Who knows? Maybe in another five years, he’ll admit he’s actually interested in making one himself.