Award-winning actor Michael Shannon has some thoughts about Star Wars.
He recently sat down for an interview with Empire Magazine according to Insider. During the interview, Shannon made some rather bold remarks about the Star Wars franchise and even went on to criticize the blockbuster genre as a whole.
The American actor has been in a range of different genres in film including Man of Steel, Knives Out, and Bullet Train. Shannon’s latest film, The Flash just released on June 16th and currently has an impressive 85% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, his following remarks make for an interesting discussion.
“If I’m making something, I want there to be some kind of purpose to it — I don’t want to make mindless entertainment,” Shannon told Empire Magazine via Insider after being asked why he turned down a role at Lucasfilm.
Regardless of how he feels about any genre, The term “Mindless Entertainment” sure says quite a bit about how Shannon may currently feel about the story that Star Wars tells.
It’s certainly debatable whether the actor isn’t interested in Star Wars altogether, or if he didn’t like the character he was pitched. On top of that, It could also be possible that he’s just not interested in what Disney and President Kathleen Kennedy have turned the highly profitable product into.
Shannon’s role in Star Wars wasn’t publicly released and most likely will not be in the near future as Shannon will not be taking the role. Shannon also didn’t go on record to give any details regarding the rejected role during the interview that we know of now.
Shannon went on to further clarify that he has no interest in big franchises. This of course was three days after the release of his new big franchise film, The Flash
“I don’t ever want to get stuck in a franchise. I don’t find them interesting and I don’t want to perpetuate them,” says Shannon
The Flash is the Third DC film that Shannon has played a role in after Batman V Superman and Man of Steel. Aside from DC, Shannon hasn’t done much franchise work and most if not, all of his films are “one n’ done.” Shannon did later clarify in the interview that he enjoyed the DC films in particular because of the purpose of his character which made the role feel worthwhile.
“So I was pretty shocked to hear about this reprisal of the role. But I like the story that ‘The Flash’ is telling and I wasn’t there for a long amount of time — I was just there a couple of weeks — so it didn’t break my back to do it,” he continued.
“I didn’t look at Zod as a villain. I just saw him as a guy whose job is to protect his people.”