Guillermo Del Toro Turned Down The Star Wars For A Crazy Reason
Around 2013-2014, the biggest entertainment news story was Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise. At the time, we had been waiting to hear word on who would direct the planned Episode VII since Disney announced they would make a new sequel trilogy. Apparently, director Guillermo del Toro was offered the Star Wars job but respectfully turned it down because he was “busy enough.”
According to the Playlist, Guillermo del Toro received a phone call from Disney when they first started looking for candidates to helm Episode VII. While del Toro said it “was very flattering” to get the call for Star Wars, he had to decline because of his numerous projects in the works.
Guillermo del Toro explained at the time, “We got one phone call to my agent saying, ‘Is Guillermo interested?’ And basically I have so much stuff already of my own, and I’m pursuing stuff that I’m generating already … It was just a phone call, it didn’t go past that, it was very nice to be asked, but believe it or not, I’m busy enough.”
While Guillermo del Toro would’ve been a fine pick to take up the Star Wars mantle, his plate did seem definitely full. He was in the middle of Pacific Rim, and had Crimson Peak coming on the horizon. Plus, The Shape of Water was just a couple of years away.
We couldn’t blame Guillermo del Toro that he was hesitant to commit to another big franchise, either. After all, del Toro was originally attached to direct The Hobbit for Warner Bros., but after two years of work and lots of wheel spinning, he left the production to work on other projects.
Guillermo del Toro did offer up his own choice for the Episode VII gig: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol director Brad Bird.
Guillermo del Toro said about Bird, “I think the fans deserve somebody that is just going to immerse themselves completely. As a geek, I would have loved to see Brad Bird take it.”
Unfortunately, Brad Bird had already declined to take the Episode VII job in favor of working on the mysterious 1952 movie he co-wrote with Prometheus screenwriter Damon Lindelof.
So did Guillermo del Toro make the right decision? It’s hard to say. He went on to massive acclaim with other movies, and the Star Wars franchise is a tough nut to crack anyway. It seems like everyone might have come out of this one okay.
