I’ve written a lot about how Star Wars needs to move the franchise’s narrative into the future, in order to thrive. So when the director of an upcoming Star Wars movie, echoes my sentiments, I’m incredibly excited. However, when that director happens to be Shawn Levy, I’m concerned. And that’s not a dig on Levy as a director, but it’s a larger concern. A concern that points to the same problem Star Wars has had since 2019; a lack of a cohesive plan for the future.
Shawn Levy Has An Impressive Filmography
Levy is a highly accomplished filmmaker with an amazing filmography. His recent string of movies with Ryan Reynolds such as Free Guy and The Adam Project were decent enough that Levy became the coveted director of the recent blockbuster MCU movie, Deadpool And Wolverine. So he is no by no means undeserving to helm a Star Wars project. But despite enjoying his films, Levy lacks one aspect that I think is crucial to have in a Star Wars movie.
Enjoyable Movies, But Difficult To Connect With
Almost every Shawn Levy-directed project fails to resonate on a deeper level. While always visually impressive and technically excellent, much of his movies feel surface-level, and almost a formulaic approach to every story.
Keep in mind, this is all my own subjective opinion about why Levy doesn’t work for me as a director. I’m sure he can give us a great action-packed, Star Wars movie with a lot of cool sequences that we’ll be talking about for months. Ultimately, he feels like a studio’s safe choice. His movies rarely have anything to say, and almost always give the fans what they want, which isn’t a bad thing. But Star Wars is always great when the storytellers have a voice of their own, like Lucas himself.
A Shawn Levy Star Wars Movie Is Exciting!
Shawn Levy may end up as a great choice for a Star Wars movie. And his most recent podcast appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz actually got me very excited for his Star Wars.
“The experience of crafting this story has forced me to think about what Star Wars is. Because there’s only so many times that Star Wars movies can revisit the same section of the timeline, and so it’s really forced me – because I don’t want to do a Star Wars movie that is redundant to others, nor am I interested in doing one that has to serve another movie.”
This is exciting to me, as it echoes my own sentiments for years. Something new. Something outside of the timelines we’ve already explored. Listening to the Happy Sad Confused podcast, it’s also clear that Levy has a special passion and connection to the franchise. So all this makes me excited, but my concern is more with how Lucasfilm is handling this franchise. And Levy as another director in their franchise is emblematic of the issue I’m having.
The Problem Is, Unfortunately, Lucasfilm
Image via Lucasfilm
Levy getting a Star Wars movie is another long line of Lucasfilm announcing directors based on who’s trending and has had the most recent success at the box office. Levy’s involvement with Star Wars came out during his helming of Wolverine And Deadpool, which is officially one of the year’s Billion-dollar movies. However, we know nothing of the story of this Star Wars movie. What characters will be in it and where this fits in with the rest of the multiple series and films apparently in the works? Rumours say Levy’s movie will feature Rey, but that leads to confusion as Rey is prominently part of the Sharlene Obaid-Chinoy movie that is supposedly next. So at this point, it’s difficult to get excited for a Shawn Levy Star Wars movie, considering like many others, it may not even happen.
This has happened before. Patty Jenkins was set to do a Rogue Squadron movie during her success with Wonder Woman at Warner Bros, but that fizzled out. Rian Johnson apparently had a whole trilogy to himself, however, the divisive reaction from fans to The Last Jedi has seemingly made that go away. Taika Waititi was also doing a Star Wars when he was trending after successes with Thor: Ragnarok and Love And Thunder for Marvel Studios. Years later, we’ve still no concrete information about that movie. And the list goes on.
Why Can’t Lucasfilm Learn From Disney Or Marvel Studios?
Image via Disney+
Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios are both owned by Disney. Marvel Studios has, unprecedentedly, revolutionized narrative filmmaking with their shared universe concept. For the first 10 years, Marvel Studios produced commercially successful, and interconnected stories in the same universe spanning 20+ movies culminating in a massive narrative endgame, in Avengers: Endgame.
Why can’t Lucasfilm approach their Star Wars universe in the same way? Why aren’t Levy, Mangold, Obaid-Chinoy and whichever other storytellers are wandering Skywalker Ranch waiting for their movie, to actually coordinate and create an expansive world, and figure out where their stories will fit in with each other. Or they will not, and will rather be one-off standalone with no connection to one another. It’s also strange given that Lucasfilm assembled a great group of filmmakers for The Mandalorian, as a collective think tank of creators guiding season 1. But they seemingly cannot do the same for the movie side?
What do you think about where Star Wars is headed, and if you’re excited about a Shawn Levy Star Wars movie? Follow me on X at @theshahshahid for more Star Wars news and discussions.