David S. Goyer revealed that Guillermo del Toro nearly directed a Star Wars film several years ago.
During a recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, host Josh Horowitz asked the screenwriter which major franchise he would love to have the opportunity to be involved with.
In response, Goyer shared that he actually “wrote an unproduced Star Wars movie that Guillermo del Toro was going to direct” about four years ago. del Toro later clarified on X (formerly known as Twitter) that it was “MANY, MANY moons ago… about 6 years or so.”
As to why the film was never greenlit, The Dark Knight writer explained, “There was just a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff going on at Lucasfilm at the time, but it’s a cool script.” He added that “there’s a lot of cool artwork from it that was produced.”
The Pinocchio filmmaker also confirmed on social media that everything Goyer said was “true” but that he “can’t say much. Maybe two letters “J” and “BB” is that three letters?”
Later during the interview, Goyer said he also wrote an unproduced scriptment for an “origins of the Jedi movie,” which was set 25,000 years before the first Star Wars film. He admitted that “dabbling in Star Wars would have been fun.”
This wasn’t the first time del Toro has almost been linked to a Star Wars project. In 2013, the director said he turned down Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens because his schedule was already “busy enough.” J.J. Abrams ultimately directed the 2015 installment.