Gareth Edwards hasn’t directed anything since Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was released five years ago, but you can bet whatever he ends up tackling next will draw in plenty more fans, many of whom consider his prequel to be the single best movie to come out of the franchise’s Disney era.
Even though we’ve seen eleven feature films set in a galaxy far, far away, J.J. Abrams remains the only director other than George Lucas to have helmed more than one. Taika Waititi did a guest spot behind the camera on The Mandalorian before signing on to wield the megaphone on a theatrical blockbuster, but the sci-fi saga has always been keen to mix it up.
To celebrate the fifth anniversary of Rogue One, Edwards was interviewed by StarWars.com, where he was asked if he’d ever be interested on returning the fold. Unfortunately, his answer is going to leave a lot of people disappointed.
“Star Wars is the most incredible franchise ever created, in my opinion, and will always have a special place in my heart. But I feel like I got to climb Everest, you know. I got to land on the moon. And I’m very happy with that. So I need to step aside and let someone else carry on the legacy. Also doing it, it felt like it was never my film. It was always something we’d borrowed from George. Every time I see something from our film, like Darth Vader or the stormtroopers or anything, I just feel like, “Well, that’s George.” That’s the original crew and designers that came up with that stuff. And I got to hold the baby for a moment and then pass it on. My main fear was that I just didn’t want to drop the baby, you know?”
Even making it to the end of production on a Star Wars movie is an achievement in itself these days when you consider what happened to the likes of Colin Trevorrow, Josh Trank, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and Patty Jenkins, who currently has Rogue Squadron on an indefinite hiatus. Rogue One is phenomenal for what it is, so you can understand why Edwards is happy to leave his contributions to the mythology at that.
