Following the recent news that director Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed) has signed on to Disney’s remake of the 80s family sci-fi adventure Flight of the Navigator, the rumoured shortlist for the Mouse House’s first foray to a galaxy far, far away continues to dwindle; Steven Spielberg (Lincoln), J.J. Abrams (Star Trek Into Darkness) and Brad Bird (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) are but a few names to officially withdraw themselves from contention, although one director who has so far refused to comment on the speculation is X-Men: First Class helmer Matthew Vaughn, and now – thanks to an apparent slip-up by actor Jason Flemyng – we might just know why…
Speaking to HeyUGuys at the UK premiere of Seven Psychopaths, Flemyng – who has worked with Matthew Vaughn on nine occasions, including all four of Vaughn’s directorial efforts (Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick-Ass and the aforementioned First Class) – appeared to offer confirmation that his good pal is already attached to Star Wars Episode VII. Take a look:
Judging by Flemyng’s reaction, it seems pretty plausible that Matthew Vaughn will be the man to continue the Skywalker saga, and it would go some way to explaining his departure from Fox’s upcoming X-Men sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past, as well as his complete silence with regards to Star Wars.
In other Episode VII news, Mark Hamill had a few words for E!Online about the possibility of him and Carrie Fisher reprising the roles of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia for the forthcoming sequel trilogy, stating that “We have questions about it. And really, they’re not even at the stage where they’re able to answer those questions because, as far as I know, is there a story yet? [editors note – yes, there is]. Until I know more about what they have in mind, I think it’s better to let Lucasfilm make the announcements. If they were going to do a story where Luke was too young or too old for me to play, they would get an age-appropriate actor. There’s so many good people.”
And finally, last week it was revealed that Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi) and Simon Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes, X-Men: First Class) had signed on to write the scripts for Episode VIII and Episode IX. However, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the two writers will be penning separate projects and that “their scripts could turn into official ‘Episodes’ in the main Skywalker storyline, or they could form the basis for spinoffs focusing on side characters.” Either way, it seems that Disney is wasting little time in getting its Star Wars universe fully operational.