Earlier this spring, we talked to Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly about their excellent Apple TV+ sci-fi series “Dark Matter” for our Bingeworthy podcast; it’s a darker, more adult consideration of the multiverse-type stories that have dominated comic book movies of late. “Dark Matter” is anything but a comic book movie and centers on a doppelgänger physicist from another universe who abducts his other self in order to be with the woman he missed his chance to be with. It’s a fantastical series but all about regret, the choices we make, and the paths not taken (read our review).
“Dark Matter” and its final episode just aired earlier this week; there are no spoilers, but it was a thrilling ending to a long and winding story, and so to discuss spoilers, Edgerton came back on the Bingeworthy podcast to talk about the conclusion all the spoilers within, and more. That episode arrives very soon, but in the meantime, we spoke to Edgerton about other topics that seemed worthy of their own excerpts.
For one, we spoke to Edgerton about his brief but memorable time in the “Star Wars” universe. Edgerton played the younger version of Uncle Owen from “A New Hope” twice: once at the end of “Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith” and once in the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” mini-series starring Ewan McGregor. And yes, there’s an aspect of “Star Wars” fandom that is toxic and very problematic (see the Rotten Tomatoes review bombing of “The Acolyte”). Still, Edgerton said Lucasfilm shouldn’t discount the voices of the devoted fans, who are loyal and know the ins and outs of all things “Star Wars.”
’ There are ‘Star Wars’ fans who could write a better ‘Star Wars’ TV show than you could imagine because they’ve studied it like the Bible and they’ve imagined all the threads and they know the histories of all the characters,” he said. “I think it’s worth listening to fans because someone out there is going to go, ‘What if this?’ And you go, ‘Oh, I want to watch that.”
Host Mike DeAngelo proposed a silly but fun idea: what if Uncle Owen got his own spin-off and became a hitman or something in that regard?
“Yeah, what if Uncle Owen and his whole like, ‘anti-war’ kind of attitude—[maybe he] was saying that because he just didn’t want to fill Luke’s head with ideas, and then you actually would realize he’s basically like some Tatooine Navy SEAL who now decided, ‘I don’t want my quasi-son to go to war,’” he laughed. “And I’m constantly impressed by TV writers who keep certain shows alive and present and vital for seasons, and they shift the paradigm, and you’re like, ‘How do these people continue to do this?”
One of Edgerton’s next major roles will be “The Entertainment System Is Down” for two-time Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker Ruben Östlund. The satire is set on a long-haul flight where the entertainment system fails, the film will see passengers forced to face the horror of being bored— Östlund obviously looking to lampoon our addiction to screens and devices in our faces 24-7. While Edgerton is super excited for the movie that has A24 as backers and also stars Keanu Reeves, Daniel Brühl, Kirsten Dunst, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, and Nicolas Braun, alongside the “Dark Matter” star, the actor says the movie doesn’t start shooting until next year.
“No, that’s next year, but, you know, I haven’t been more excited about the prospect of something in such a long time,” he said about the project. “I’m such a fan of [Östlund’] filmmaking. Ever since I saw ‘Force Majeure,’ which I reckon I’ve seen that movie about six or seven times. I just think that the way he trades in human discomfort and foibles is so unique.”
The last film Edgerton shot and should be on all Most Anticipated 2025 lists is “Train Dreams” co-starring Felicity Jones, the newest feature from “Jockey” director Clint Bentley. The film stars Edgerton as a day laborer in the American West at the beginning of the 20th century. Battered by the death of his family, he struggles to adjust to this new environment.
“Train Dreams’ was just such a special experience,” he teased. “I hadn’t worked for a whole year because with ‘Dark Matter,’ I felt like I’d done five years’ worth of work in six months, and I needed to be with my children. And then the strike came along. And so by the time I got to work on ‘Train Dreams,’ I was so happy to be on-set doing something after a year and had a remarkable experience on a real small scale, small budget. It’s sort of a Western that isn’t about violence. It’s about life and about the experience of living on the planet and contributing to the human race. And it’s another one that actually deals with my greatest fear of loss of family and stuff. But it’s not overtly heavy.”
More from this interview soon, including all the fun spoiler talk about “Dark Matter,” its finale, and all its secrets. — Additional reporting by Mike DeAngelo.