John Wick director Chad Stahelski prefers creating his own films over working with huge franchises but still wants to "take a swing" at Star Wars.
Speaking to Josh Horowitz, Stahelski said he's a huge fan of the galaxy far, far away, and while making films with his own vision and ruleset is very important to him, he has some ideas for a Star Wars film.
"I'm a Star Wars guy," Stahelski said. "The first Star Wars changed my life path. Maybe someday out there, Disney if you're listening, hit me in a couple of years. I have a couple of takes for Star Wars. I'd take a swing at that, see if Disney could survive me."
There would be compromises to working in the Star Wars universe, of course, which is partly the reason Stahelski has stuck to his own John Wick franchise instead of taking on films for bigger franchises. He said John Wick: Chapter 4 is 96% or 97% his own film, which he doesn't believe many other directors can say. "I've been asked a lot about, 'Why do you do John Wicks? Don't you want to try something else?'" he said.
"Yes of course I do, but given the choice I've had and the parameters that were presented to me, as far as those opportunities went, I felt like I could do more and bring something more, and do more of what I want, and do the fights and the anime and the action more my way by doing [John Wick]." Why work within somebody else's parameters of what I feel to be a duel or mythology when I can create."
Part of Stahelski still struggles to say no, however, the director admitted. "It is a big ego dump when you're like, 'Alright, do I think I can take them?'," he said. "I still have a little bit of a competitor mindset left in me. I'm going 'no that's cool and I'm very flattered and I'm very honoured', but at the same time I want to take a swing. It's like Rocky. I gotta know."
Both Stahelski and his fans will just need to wait and see if he can take a swing at Star Wars, but Disney is definitely up for sharing the love. Lucasfilm chief creative officer Dave Filoni, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny's James Mangold, Oscar-winning director Sharmeen-Obaid Chinoy, and Thor: Ragnarok's Taika Waititi are all pegged to create new films. Star Wars: Episode 8 - The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson is also putting together an entire trilogy, though this isn't in active development.
Image Credit: Jun Sato/WireImage via Getty Images
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
