Five years ago, Josh Trank wasn’t having a great time as a filmmaker in Hollywood. He had spent months battling Fox over the version of “Fantastic Four” he wanted to release (ultimately leading to a spectacularly bad superhero bomb), and he was then fired from a potential “Boba Fett” spin-off film by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy after what seemed to be a troubled relationship where the filmmaker didn’t make it to a “Star Wars” Celebration event. Well, years have passed and now Trank is explaining what went wrong with his “Star Wars” spin-off.
READ MORE: Plot Details Emerge About Now-Dead ‘Boba Fett’ Standalone ‘Star Wars’ Film
Speaking to Polygon, the filmmaker revealed that the real reason that he and Lucasfilm didn’t make a “Boba Fett” film was because the filmmaker quit the project. Well, to be fair, Trank quit because he knew Kathleen Kennedy was probably going to fire him anyway.
“I quit because I knew I was going to be fired if I didn’t quit,” he revealed.
So, what led to this departure? It appears that it can all be blamed on “Fantastic Four.” But not because Lucasfilm didn’t like the superhero film.
The report says that during the behind-the-scenes turmoil, with Trank arguing with Fox over the direction of “Fantastic Four,” eventually leading to the studio taking control of the film from the director, word about the issues made its way to Lucasfilm. And as we’ve seen in the past with Kathleen Kennedy and her “Star Wars” films, if a director isn’t willing to play ball and do what the studio suggests, then they’re likely not going to last long.
Eventually, it was decided that Trank should sit out the infamous “Star Wars” Celebration event that was planned for 2015, leading the director to tweet about a terrible illness that prevented him from showing up. Of course, reports started to swirl that Trank’s behavior during “Fantastic Four” was causing issues and that he didn’t show up for the event, even though Disney had planned on him to make an appearance.
Obviously, we know what happened next. Trank was “fired” from the film. But according to the filmmaker, the truth is that he told his management team that he didn’t want to do the film and that he didn’t want to do studio films anymore. However, instead of that making the news, the reports all claimed that Kennedy fired him.
READ MORE: Josh Trank Says Working On ‘Fantastic Four’ Reshoots “Was Like Being Castrated”
So, it would appear that the mess behind-the-scenes of “Fantastic Four” was the reason for Trank’s departure, but it might have been a bit more amicable than once thought. Of course, “Boba Fett” would never enter production and instead, fans got “The Mandalorian” on Disney+. And now, Josh Trank is prepping the release of his next film, five years in the making, “Capone,” on May 12.
