Denis Villeneuve Explains His ‘Star Wars’ Disinterest: “It All Derailed in 1983”

Denis Villeneuve is detailing why he doesn’t want to direct a Star Wars film.

The Dune filmmaker says he fell out of love with the franchise a rather long, long time ago.

While on The Town podcast, Villeneuve shared that Star Wars blew it after two films, with 1983’s Return of the Jedi, which most fans consider a bit of a step down from 1977’s A New Hope and 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back.

“I was the target audience. I was 10 years old. It went to my brain like a silver bullet. I became obsessed with Star Wars,” he said. “I mean, The Empire Strikes Back is the movie that I anticipated the most in my life. I saw the movie a billion times onscreen. I was traumatized by The Empire Strikes Back. I adore Star Wars.”

“The problem is that it all derailed in 1983 with Return of the Jedi,” he continued. “It’s a long story. I was 15 years old, and my best friend and I wanted to take a cab and go to L.A. and talk to George Lucas — we were so angry! Still today, the Ewoks. It turned out to be a comedy for kids. … Star Wars became crystallized in its own mythology, very dogmatic, it seemed like a recipe, no more surprises. So I’m not dreaming to do a Star Wars because it feels like code is very codified.”

And as far as Star Trek goes, Villeneuve admitted, “I’m not a Trekkie.”

The Oscar-nominated director seemed reluctant to talk about a potential Dune 3 and simply said he might be doing it. Elsewhere, the director said he’d prefer to return to individual unique films rather than dive into another franchise.

Villeneuve also noted he does not want to work for a streaming service like Netflix. “The big screen is part of the language, to share a story together, to receive the communal emotional experience of cinema in a theater,” he said. “We’re not meant to be alone, we’re meant to share together. … I believe the theater experience will prevail.”