Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy’s Star Wars film won’t be connected to the mainline saga, he’s revealed.
Once Shawn Levy is done with the press circuit for Deadpool & Wolverine, he’ll be leaving Marvel to work with Lucasfilm, that other subsidiary of the mighty Disney empire. It’s the world of Star Wars next for Levy, and Lucasfilm will likely be hoping the filmmaker can give the ailing franchise a much-needed shot in the arm as he’s just done for Marvel with Deadpool & Wolverine.
With this in mind, here’s an interesting story that could become more significant further down the road: Levy has begun to chat a little about his Star Wars project, telling the Happy Sad Confused podcast that his film will be standalone.
“There’s only so many times that Star Wars movies can revisit the same section of the timeline,” he said. “I don’t want to do a Star Wars film that is redundant to others. Nor am I interested in doing one that has to serve another movie.”
This isn’t a new idea in the Star Wars franchise. James Mangold is also working on a standalone film once he’s finished up work on his Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown. Lucasfilm, it seems, has acknowledged that it can no longer rely solely on the nostalgia factor and legacy characters – perhaps the first step into a creatively fertile future for the series?
The recent Disney+ series The Acolyte also tried this approach – with very mixed results, we might add. And the choice of Levy to helm such a film seems like a curious one in this regard. While Mangold has both spoken out against cinematic universes and made many outstanding standalone films, Levy’s career – which admittedly includes some huge moneymaking films – has really been built on interconnectivity. From Stranger Things to Marvel, the filmmaker’s biggest successes have come with films that work in synergy with others. Even Free Guy, (the financially successful film that presumably got him the Star Wars gig) found itself leaning somewhat into easter eggs and references for its gags.
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Although Levy’s recent superhero mash-up didn’t please everybody (our review is here), but there’s no question that the film is has achieved what it set out to do (even if that likely never included the telling of an emotionally resonant story), which is make a lot of money. It’s reminiscent of some of those old Deadpool comic book team-ups, simply offering a good time, pop-culture references, anarchic humour and little else.
So far, so good though. It seems to be what audiences wanted, given that the film has smashed all kinds of records and once again placed Marvel on the right track, temporarily banishing the many ‘Marvel is doomed’ prophecies that have become so ubiquitous over the past couple of years.
On the whole though, this has to be seen as good news. Lucasfilm has long been criticised for relying on nostalgia, but an increasing number of projects are now entering production which should finally expand the franchise and hopefully lead it to new successes. We’ll let you know more as we hear it.
