It looks like carrying Hollywood’s action movie sector wasn’t enough to satisfy Chad Stahelski, the visionary helmsman of the John Wick franchise; indeed, the stuntman turned director has officially thrown his hat in the ring for getting Disney’s blessing on taking his talents to a galaxy far, far away.
In a recent interview with Josh Horowitz on Happy Sad Confused, Stahelski proudly marked himself as a long-time Star Wars fan before quickly revealing that he would be all too happy to “take a swing” at building upon George Lucas’ legendary sci-fi mythos.
I’m a Star Wars guy. The first Star Wars changed my life path. Maybe someday out there, Disney, if you’re listening, hit me in a couple of years. I have a couple of takes for Star Wars. I’d take a swing at that, see if Disney could survive me… It is a big ego dump when you’re like, “Alright, do I think I can take them?” I still have a little bit of a competitor mindset left in me. I’m going, “No that’s cool and I’m very flattered and I’m very honored,” but at the same time, I want to take a swing. It’s like Rocky. I gotta know.
Judging by this markedly gung-ho attitude, it’s safe to say that, should Stahelski ever be given the reins of a future Star Wars project, he’d hold back about as much as we’d expect him to (which is to say that he would be the very antithesis of holding back). And with a résumé that includes his tour-de-force quartet of John Wick films and a producer credit on Netflix’s underrated horror comedy Day Shift, it’s safe to say that such a project would be quite the feast for choreography enthusiasts especially.
As for the what and where of such a story, Stahelski’s particular bread and butter of highly-stylized, relatively isolated odysseys with an almost mythological protagonist would likely necessitate a standalone film featuring a character that we haven’t spent a whole lot of—or even any—time with. If we’re spitballing, a Greedo prequel film in which he’s both hunting and being hunted by some vengeful enemies after a job gone wrong is one that Stahelski could have a lot of fun with; combine that with a dense jungle setting for the sake of ample stunt opportunity, and you’d probably have fans begging for more Star-helski Wars not long after.
For now, though, Stahelski’s Star Wars debut is nothing more than a dream at present, so we’re better off looking ahead to Ballerina, the upcoming John Wick spinoff film due this summer, to scratch that particular itch for now.
