Donnie Yen shares his thoughts on returning to Star Wars as Chirrut

In 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a surprising favorite was the character Chirrut Îmwe, played by the impeccable Donnie Yen. Chirrut was a character who was blind, but he was guided by the ways of the Force, which allowed him to trust his instincts and even measure up to some of the best Jedi.

Naturally, like many of the original characters in Rogue One, that would be the only time we saw his character on screen. But what about the possibility of Chirrut returning anyway? There’s always a possibility for characters to return in the Star Wars universe, and even Donnie Yen himself is okay with that idea.

Speaking to Looper in an interview, he was asked about how he felt in regard to returning to Star Wars, and he had quite the eloquent answer. Here’s what he said:

"Well, I would definitely consider it. I had a great time shooting Rogue One, and I guess people like my character. It really depends, you don’t know what they’re thinking. I leave it up to Disney to sort it out. We’ll see. I believe in destiny. A lot of times, what brings people together in one film, it’s all about timing and destiny.Same with this. I was working in other projects with one of the producers, Basil, and over the phone we were talking about our other projects. And he asked me, “Donnie, do you like the John Wick series?” I said, “As a matter of fact, I do.” “Oh, would you like to be in it?” I said, “Well, it’s depending on the material and my character.”And they were really passionate about wanting me to be in the film, and we had multiple discussions of my role, and where I’d like to take this role. And we totally, we synced, and we were on the same page. That’s what happened, and there I am."

Will Chirrut return to Star Wars?

It seems pretty clear that there is a possibility of Chirrut returning in a future Star Wars project. With Andor coming out, we likely would have known by now if he was going to be in that TV series. So it doesn’t look like we will see him in that. (Though, Lucasfilm is good at keeping secrets, so who knows?)

But at the same time, Yen is right — it certainly should be under the right conditions. To be fair, the Star Wars television teams have been very careful about the characters they use and the stories they’ve been telling thus far. So we don’t think that would be much of a problem for Yen. But still, as an actor playing the character, he should have some say in how Chirrut is portrayed to make sure the character stays true to who he is.

We’re not sure his character could fit into some of the already announced series, especially the ones in Dave Finonli and Jon Favreau’s Mandalorian universe. But with Star Wars being so ambitious at this time about the projects they’re creating, we know that Chirrut and even his friend Jyn Erso could find their way back to Star Wars’ live-action universe.

How would you like to see Chirrut return? Let us know in the comments!