J.D. Dillard Says He’s No Longer Working On A ‘Star Wars’ Film Or The Sequel To ‘The Rocketeer’

Lucasfilm giveth and Lucasfilm taketh away. On a day when it was reported that Shawn Levy is the latest filmmaker to get hired to develop a new “Star Wars” film, it has now been revealed that J.D. Dillard is no longer attached to a new film in the galaxy far, far away.

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According to a new interview with The Wrap, filmmaker J.D. Dillard confirmed that a couple of in-development franchise projects that he was attached to are no longer moving forward. And yes, one of them is the “Star Wars” film that was announced in February 2020. All that was known at the time was that Dillard, coming off the release of his thriller “Sweetheart,” was set to develop a new “Star Wars” film alongside “Luke Cage” writer Matt Owens. But apparently, that’s just another film in the Disney era of Lucasfilm that has been teased and never made.

Dillard told The Wrap that his “Star Wars” film is “unfortunately no longer a thing.” “It was not for lack of trying,” he added. And while he’s done with “Star Wars,” he’s not done with the idea of a space epic, but he teased that it would have to be “an original idea.” 

As for what the plot of his aborted “Star Wars” film would have been, Dillard remained mum, but he did tease that he grew up a massive fan of the “TIE Fighter” video game.

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“My dad being an aviator, we had a bunch of flight simulators,” Dillard explained. “I’m playing [‘TIE Fighter’] for months. And my dad’s flying it with me. And I’m like, ‘Man, this game is just so cool.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, you know, this game comes from a series of movies.’ And I was like, ‘You’re kidding me.’ That is where I watched ‘Star Wars’ for the first time and realized the full scope of what it meant to world build because I’d been playing this pseudo-16-bit game.”

The “Star Wars” franchise is not the only major blockbuster project that Dillard has been reportedly involved with. In addition to the news of his Lucasfilm project, the filmmaker was shortly announced to be involved with the possible sequel to “The Rocketeer.” The film would have served as a sequel, but it appears that Dillard’s involvement in that film is also no more. 

“I am not on that movie,” Dillard said about “The Return of the Rocketeer.” “But, you know, it’s tricky. I love, love, love ‘The Rocketeer.’ What I have a slightly hard time wrapping my head around now is going back to pre-1970 aviation. You know, I’m not saying never. But I think I need a breather from period aviation.” 

He is, of course, referencing his new film, “Devotion,” which stars Jonathan Majors as a Naval pilot during the Korean War. That film is set to arrive in theaters on November 23.