Should the Star Wars original trilogy movies be rebooted?

Filmmaker Matthew Vaughn raised more than just a few eyebrows when he recently proclaimed that the original trilogy of Star Wars should be rebooted for our more modern era. For reference, his exact quote was, “ For me, doing a ‘Star Wars’ movie is to play with the characters I love. 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 does Matthew’s quote raise eyebrows? Because many see these movies as untouchable, as imperfectly perfect moments in pop culture history.

Rebooting movies is a challenge

Is Matthew Vaughn blowing smoke? Not at all. Quite the opposite when it comes to his films. Vaughn has directed some very well-done and well-loved pop culture and superhero movies like Kingsman and X-Men: First Class, among others. Vaughn certainly knows how to craft and create a compelling story that is visually pleasing. But Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader are hallowed ground and revered characters.

If anything, the sequel trilogy showed that you have to treat these characters expertly, write them well, and craft their story carefully. Still, any change to their character base or personality will have mixed reactions. Why?

Because, as fans, we have character expectations that were set by the original trilogy. A reboot, as Vaughn suggests, could very well be a minefield fraught with dangers. For many of us, we grew up with these characters. Although we didn’t create these characters, we did develop memories attached to them. Many fans have personalized these characters and adore them for their flaws and moments of perfection that they have.

So, that’s a no to Vaughn?

Personally, I would love to see Matthew Vaughn be at the helm of a Star Wars movie and put his touches on said film. That being said, I wouldn’t want it to be a reboot of the Skywalker Saga. In my opinion, there is so much outside of the Skywalker name to be explored. I look forward to the upcoming Rey Skywalker movie to see how her story moves forward with more consistent writing and directing. Why not give Vaughn a film in the newly opened galaxy that includes the planet of Peridea? Or he could make decisions about what characters and locations to properly bring in from Legends into the canon? Give him the opportunity to excel with new stories and locations.

What about recasting?

Recasting is another conversation to consider. Based on the many social media comments and articles written about the topic, it would appear that the majority of fans are not in favor of de-aging characters. Arguably, de-aging is tricky at best. We have seen that it’s hard to make the character look normal and natural. That is unless you’re going for a full CGI character, and the actor has agreed to allow his or her voice and likeness to be used in Artificial Intelligence.

Instead, I would love to see characters like Luke Skywalker, when used on screen, to be recast. One option could be Sebastian Stan. In fact, Sebastian Stan and Mark Hamill have been joke-tweeting about this for some time now, as shown in this 2017 Tweet from Hamill. There is also Max Lloyd-Jones, who has already played Luke.

Also, we need to consider the role of Baylan Skoll in the recent Ahsoka series. It would make logical sense to recast Baylan after the death of the actor Ray Stevenson. Ray did a phenomenal job, but to properly carry on his story on Peridea and the search of the Mortis Gods, we need a live human actor, not AI, to perform this work. Leaving his story alone and walking away from the character is also a possibility, but I think it is an unfortunate one. One possible recast for Baylan Skoll would be the actor Liev Schreiber. You may know him best from his role as Sabertooth in the Marvel X-Men Origin: Wolverine movie. The movie wasn’t the best, but Liev was fantastic in the role. Being the same age and nearly the same height and build as Ray Stevenson, he could carry that torch well in a continuation of Baylans’ story.

Reboots, Recasts, or Both?

Reboots. No, thank you. Recasts? Strong maybe. Again, we have enough stories away from the Skywalker name and Saga that we don’t need to rehash the original trilogy. Instead, let’s recast where it makes sense and continue to explore that galaxy far, far away.

Matthew Vaughn can come along, too, if he likes.