Joss Whedon Would’ve Taken Star Wars In A Totally Different Direction
Ever since George Lucas effectively retired and Star Wars was sold off to Disney, seemingly everyone and everyone who’s ever directed anything had an opinion about the franchise. Many wanted to take part (some were able to) and tons had ideas for different directions things could have gone. Of course Joss Whedon would throw his hat in the ring there.
For better or worse, J.J. Abrams was announced as the new director of Star Wars: Episode VII, but for the weeks leading up to the announcement, many different names were rumored for the job, including Joss Whedon who, at the time, seemed like he would have been a good fit.
It was reported at the time that Joss Whedon took his name out of the running for the Star Wars: Episode VII because he was busy overseeing the S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series and The Avengers sequel for Marvel Studios. Again, dude was a hot directorial commodity then. There were plenty of folks and fans who would have loved to see him jump into the Star Wars galaxy.
In an interview with Digital Spy, Joss Whedon spoke candidly about his vision of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, had he taken the job. Joss Whedon said, “You know, I wouldn’t go back, I’d go forward. I would want to create characters that would resonate the way that they did.”
It’s a somewhat vague statement that could have been interpreted a number of different ways. The easiest way to read what Joss Whedon said would be that his plan could have involved distancing the story from the original or the prequel trilogies. Creating new characters to resonate with seems like it would be mutually exclusive to getting the old band back together.
To some degree, J.J. Abrams and company did go through this approach, bringing in Daisy Ridley‘s Rey as the newest Jedi, a fresh face on the scene for sure. But they did keep Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia in the mix over the course of the trilogy. Would Joss Whedon have done the same? It’s tough to say.
While it would be nice to see new characters in the Star Wars universe, keeping the new sequel trilogy cohesive with its predecessors is the better approach to re-capturing the magic George Lucas created with the original trilogy. The Skywalkers are synonymous with the Star Wars saga so it seems absolutely fitting that Episode VII would be connected to Episodes I through VI, with the re-introductions of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia.
We also know that Joss Whedon faced his fair share of allegations and controversy, much of which arouse after Star Wars came out. Ray Fisher accused him of abusive behavior while filming Justice League, and many took umbrage with him oversexualizing certain scripts. Would the same have happened with Star Wars? It’s not outside the realm of possibility.
In the end, it’s probably a good thing that Joss Whedon backed out of doing the first Star Wars sequel. It’s not likely to have ended well.
