Matthew Vaughn had a long conversation with “Happy Sad Confused” this week about his new film “Argylle” and just about everything else he’s done in his career. That includes Vaughn’s aspirations for an MCU-like spy cinematic universe at MARV that combines “Argylle,” the “Kingsman” franchise, and a third franchise he has in the works. And the backlash he received from Fox ececs for exiting “X-Men: The Last Stand“ just days before production started. Or the trilogy of Superman movies he pitched to Warner Bros. that the studio wasn’t interested in at all. Or that he has “no shot” of ever directing a James Bond movie.
The list goes on: with Vaughn’s experience working in cinematic universes, one wonders if he’d ever sign up to do a “Star Wars” film for Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm. Vaughn isn’t all that interested in the opportunity, but he would consider it on one basis: Kennedy allows him to reboot the franchise from scratch. “Now, not so much,” Vaughn replied when asked about doing a “Star Films” project. “For me, doing a “Star Wars” movie is to play with the characters I love. If they said to me they’d reboot “Star Wars” and actually have Luke Skywalker, Solo and Vader and do your version of it. Everyone would say you’re an idiot to try, but that would excite me.”
Yeah, Matthew Vaughn rebooting “Star Wars” in his own vision would make fans go mental. But Vaughn’s line of thinking may sound crazy, it actually makes a great deal of sense. After all, if it’s been doing with James Bond, why can’t the same methodology apply to other beloved franchises? “Why are the [“Star Wars”] characters so hallowed that from 1977 you can’t re-do it for a new audience?” he asked. It’s a fair point, and one that echoes in other cinematic registers across the generations. There’s been several Victor Frankensteins, Draculas, Philip Marlowes, Hannibal Lectors, etc. Maybe a new version of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Darth Vader wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
Vaughn doesn’t sound like he likes the new “Star Wars” films that much anyway. “”Star Wars” is the Skywalker family, and that’s where I think they’ve gone wrong,” he said of the new films. “They’ve forgot. They’ve done brilliantly in TV, but it needs an epic new film. That’s what I would do [i.e. reboot Luke]. Everyone is going to go batshit crazy, but let’s bring it on. If you want a new generation, make the movie for them. The old generation, hopefully, you make it well enough that they enjoy it.”
Obviously, that’s not what Kennedy and Lucasfilm have in mind with their upcoming batch of “Star Wars” movies, but Vaughn makes a good point. Maybe the “Star Wars” universe needs to get back to basics and fully reboot if they want to maintain premier cultural relevance.
