J.D. Dillard will no longer direct a Star Wars movie, the filmmaker has confirmed.
Known for his superhero film Sleight and survival horror Sweetheart, Dillard was set to helm a Star Wars film first announced in February 2020. Luke Cage writer Matt Owens was to pen the script. The filmmaker says that Lucasfilm will no longer move forward with the announced film.
In an interview with The Wrap, Dillard said the project is “unfortunately no longer a thing,” but “it was not for lack of trying.”
Details on the project were never revealed, and Dillard remains mum on the plot. Though, when The Wrap asked him what his Star Wars movie would feel like, he renaubed tight-lipped but did note that playing an early Star Wars computer game called TIE Fighter changed his life.
“My dad being an aviator, we had a bunch of flight simulators,” Dillard said, where he includes the 1994 game Star Wars: TIE Fighter.
“I’m playing this game for months. And my dad’s flying it with me. And I’m like, ‘Man, this game is just so cool.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, you know, this game comes from a series of movies.’ And I was like, ‘You’re kidding me.’ That is where I watched Star Wars for the first time and realized the full scope of what it meant to world build because I’d been playing this pseudo-16-bit game.”
Star Wars: TIE Fighter is a 1994 space flight simulator and space combat video game, and a sequel to Star Wars: X-Wing. It was released on DOS, Macintosh, and Microsoft Windows.
SEE ALSO: Stranger Things’ Shawn Levy in talks to direct a Star Wars movie
J.D. Dillard’s next film is the upcoming war drama Devotion with Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell. The film is set for release on November 23rd.
