Making a Star Wars movie seems like it would be a dream come true. So many filmmakers have talked about Star Wars being an inspiration to them, so you can imagine how they would jump at the opportunity to tell a Star Wars story of their own. Yet, there have been instances where some directors have turned down an opportunity to direct a Star Wars movie over the years. These are those directors and the reasons why they said no.
(Note: This list does not include people who were considered for a directing job before Lucasfilm eventually decided on a different director. These are the people who were offered the job, but turned it down.)
The Prequel Trilogy
Before George Lucas decided to return to directing for the prequel trilogy, the directing job (at least for Episode I) was offered to multiple directors. Lucas offered the chance to direct a Star Wars movie to Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Robert Zemeckis, but all of them ended up turning the idea down. They all had the same reason.
Star Wars belonged to George Lucas. It was his baby, and he should be the one to direct the movies. It seems that Lucas had originally intended to take a producer role for the prequel movies the way he had for the second and third movies of the original trilogy. However, he was eventually talked into getting back in the director's chair for the first time since 1977 to direct the three new movies himself. Though, Ron Howard turned down an offer to direct the prequels, he would eventually go on to direct a Star Wars movie when he was hired to finish directing Solo: A Star Wars Story in 2018.
The Original Trilogy
While Lucas was always going to direct the first movie himself, and it seems like Irvin Kershner was the only person ever asked about directing The Empire Strikes Back, the journey to getting a director for Return of the Jedi was another story.
The first person to turn down the job was Kershner, who was given a chance to return after his work on Empire. However, he said that he was ready to move on after dedicating so much time to Star Wars with the last movie. Spielberg was also reportedly interested in directing this movie as well, and considered as a possibility, but was unable to do so due to rules of the Director's Guild. At the time, Lucas had left the union due to fines from The Empire Strikes Back for violating their crediting rules, which meant that the DGA didn't allow any members of the Guild, including Spielberg, to direct Return of the Jedi. After Spielberg was ruled out, both David Lynch and David Cronenberg were offered the job, but in both cases, they felt they weren’t the right pick for a Star Wars movie.
The Sequel Trilogy
Once Disney had announced that Episodes VII-IX would be made, one of the first people approached about directing the new Star Wars movie was Brad Bird. Bird had previously made successful movies for Disney, such as The Incredibles, and had also had success in big-budget blockbuster filmmaking, having at the time recently directed the fourth Mission Impossible movie to critical and commercial success, so it's easy to see why the studio was interested in him. Brad Bird turned the project down to focus on his movie Tomorrowland. Bird has stated that he briefly considered trying to do both movies, but he quickly realized that wouldn't be possible. Given that Tomorrowland was released in May of 2015 with Disney insisting that Episode VII be released in 2015, Bird is right that it would have likely been impossible for him to be able to direct both movies.
Once Bird turned the project down, a few other directors were asked about their interest in the project, like Guillermo del Toro and Neill Blomkamp, who stated in later interviews that they passed on the project before JJ Abrams was eventually hired.
Plenty of other directors have talked about taking meetings with Lucasfilm and Kathleen Kennedy at some point in 2012 after the sale to Disney. However, it’s not always clear whether those meetings ended with the potential director turning down the project or Lucasfilm deciding to go in a different direction. For example, both Matthew Vaughn and David Fincher have spoken about having a Star Wars-related meeting in the era before The Force Awakens was released. It’s also not always clear with these meetings if the directors were meeting about directing an official episode of the Skywalker Saga or one of the many potential spinoff movies in the works at the time.
The one other person that we know who turned down directing a Star Wars movie at the time was JJ Abrams. While he agreed to direct the first movie in the new trilogy, he was reportedly at one point offered the chance to direct all three movies of the new trilogy, but he declined, saying that it was far too big of a commitment given how much was on his plate. Of course, he would eventually return to direct the third and final movie of the sequel trilogy, but technically, he still goes on the list for initially declining the chance to direct Episodes VIII and IX.