Luke Skywalker without Mark Hamill? Han Solo without Harrison Ford? All of this seems like a crazy idea, but giving the Star Wars universe a completely fresh start is exactly what the franchise needs, according to director Matthew Vaughn. Vaughn, who’s best known for directing X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass, and all of the Kingsman films, brought the idea up during the latest episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, stating that if he was given the chance, he’d reboot Star Wars, explaining that there’s no reason why the characters couldn’t be changed, similar to James Bond and Batman, which have had different actors over the years. “Rebooting is what I would do,” Vaughn, who’s doing exactly that for the next Kick-Ass movie, said.
“For me, doing a Star Wars movie is to play with the characters I love,” Vaughn said. “If they said to me they’d reboot Star Wars and actually have Luke Skywalker, Solo, and Vader, and do your version of it, everyone would say you’re an idiot to try, but that would excite me.”
“Why are the [Star Wars] characters so hallowed that from 1977 you can’t re-do it for a new audience?”
“Star Wars is the Skywalker family and that’s where I think they’ve gone wrong,” he continued. “They’ve forgot. They’ve done brilliantly in TV but it needs an epic new film. That [rebooting with the original characters] is what I would do. Everyone is going to go batshit crazy, but let’s bring it on. If you want a new generation, make the movie for them. The old generation, hopefully you make it well enough that they enjoy it.”