When you are a film studio that thrives on secrecy, sometimes false news gets reported and your refusal to confirm or deny can bite you on the rear end. That seems to be the case with Lucasfilm and a casting rumor that turned into fact with “Star Wars: Episode IX.”
Last August, we reported that “Doctor Who” and “The Crown” alum, Matt Smith was joining the cast for the upcoming “Star Wars: Episode IX,” directed by J.J. Abrams. However, there was no confirmation from Lucasfilm (who doesn’t really confirm anything until the studio absolutely has to). But still, as it was widely reported, it was deemed true. Except, this time, it’s not.
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When asked in a recent interview, whether or not he’s going to show up in the upcoming “Star Wars” film, Smith didn’t mince words. “As far as I can tell, I’m definitely not,” he said in a new interview with the LA Times.
As for a film that he’s most definitely starring in, and ready to talk about, “Morbius,” the actor did illuminate why he thought now was the time to join the world of superhero films.
“I really like the director, Daniel Espinosa, on [‘Morbius’],” he explained. “I’ve kind of waited [comic book movies] out a bit. I nearly did one last year and then I didn’t. This one felt right because of him.”
Perhaps, Smith is a bit apprehensive about joining major franchises after his experience on the awful “Terminator: Genisys,” which was expected to reboot the beloved sci-fi series. The actor had a fairly large part in that film, and was heavily involved in the marketing. It’s understandable that maybe he’s being slightly more picky with these projects moving forward.
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Also helping his ability to be more careful is the fact that his run on the Emmy-winning Netflix series “The Crown” earned Smith some well-deserved acting cred. You would think that after two seasons on the series (which replaced its entire cast for Season 3, thanks to a time-jump), Smith would look back fondly on his time in the period drama. Alas, that’s not really the case. He’s happy he was part of the series, but explains why he was also happy for it to end.
“[The production] just wouldn’t end,” Smith said. “I was ready to leave. I feel very privileged to have been part of it. But I was ready to do something else. And I was signed up to do something else, but then it kept going on and on and on and so that wasn’t happening and it made the end of it quite problematic for me. But that’s the nature of the beast.”
Well, Smith has all that behind him now. His focus can stick to “Morbius” for the time, and hopefully, the Jared Leto-led ‘Spider-Man’ spin-off film will reap more goodwill than his last franchise outing.