A new rumor claims that The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm are recasting Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and Han Solo in order to adapt Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn series.
This latest rumor comes from YouTube personality and scooper Overlord DVD.
In his video, Overlord DVD detailed information he received from a source that refuted a previous rumor where he claimed Lucasfilm was recasting Luke, Leia, and Han in order to remake the original trilogy.
According to this new source, Lucasfilm is still looking to recast Luke, Leia, and Han, but are doing so to adapt Zahn’s Thrawn novels.
Overlord DVD explained, “To being with, I’m not exactly sure who gave you the information on the recasting of the original Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Harrison Ford. As you gentlemen would know them: Leia, Luke, and Han. While [Lucasfilm] is considering this, it’s not to remake the original trilogy. I’m uncertain what you’ve been told, but Disney can’t touch the original trilogy.
“That being said, the reason for the recasting is so Disney can make the Thrawn series,” he concluded.
Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+. © 2020 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
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Later in the video, Overlord DVD addressed why Lucasfilm is allegedly planning to recast instead of using deep fakes like what they’ve used in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.
He said, “Unfortunately, Disney is not in a place where they can or could do a movie or multiple shows with deep fake or CGI characters. The only possible other option would be animation and to be completely transparent that is not out of the conversation at this time.”
“The original trilogy will not be changed and/or remade, reimagined, remade for a modern audience etc… But if Star Wars is going to do EU books with Luke, Leia, Han, they’re going to have to be recast,” he added.
Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+. © 2020 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
This rumor comes in the wake of director Matthew Vaughn positing that Star Wars should be rebooted.
While promoting Argylle, Vaughn did an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast where he was asked if he would ever do a Star Wars film.
He responded, “Yeah. Now, not so much.” Horowitz would then interjected, “It’s been tainted a little bit…”
Vaughn continued, “It’s not been tainted. And I’m not going to go there. I would say for me doing a Star Wars movie is to play with the characters that I loved. So if they said to me, ‘We’ll reboot. Do you want to reboot Star Wars and actually have Luke Skywalker, Solo, and Vader and you do your version of it?’ Everyone would say you’re an idiot to try, but that would excite me.”
Horowitz then claimed Vaughn had a death wish. He responded, “But that’s fun. Why not? Bond. Do you mind Bond? You know you asked me who’s going to play the next Wolverine.”
“Why are these characters so hallowed that from ’77 you can’t redo it for a new audience. And that’s the story,” he added.
A scene from Star Wars: A New Hope (1977), Lucasfilm
Vaughn would go on to detail where he believed Lucasfilm went wrong with Star Wars, “Star Wars is the Skywalker family. And that’s where I think they’ve gone wrong ’cause they’ve forgot that.”
He added, “They’ve done brilliantly in the TV, but it needs an epic, new film. And that’s what I would do. I would go, right. Everyone’s going to go batshit crazy, but let’s bring it on. Because if you want a new generation make the movie for them. The old generation can hopefully make it well enough that they go, ‘Okay, I’m enjoying it.’”
(L-R) Director Matthew Vaughn, Joel Basman and Ralph Fiennes on the set of 20th Century Studios’ THE KING’S MAN. Photo credit: Peter Mountain. © 2020 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
In an interview with ScreenRant, Vaughn would clarify his comments telling the outlet, “But for me now, if someone asked me, what would you do? For me to get back into the world of somebody else’s characters and other franchises, I mean, I was joking. I said this as a joke, and now, yeah, maybe I would do it.”
“If they wanted to reboot Star Wars, set the story with the Skywalkers. And then I’ll go, Hey, that will be interesting. Because for me, it’s got to be something so bold, so different, and so brave,” he asserted.
“They said, ‘You can’t do that,'” he continued. “I was like, ‘There’ve been three Spider-Mans, Bonds. Like, what are you talking about? Why can’t that happen?’”
“I don’t control Star Wars, but I would do something big, brave, and with the great characters,” he boasted. “I want to see Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Chewie doing their s–t. Not some distant cousin. Who cares? I need an event for Star Wars.”
A scene from Star Wars: A New Hope (1977), Lucasfilm
While it might seem that Vaughn was pushing for a remake of the original trilogy, it’s more than likely he was expressing interest in continuing the tales of Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewie following the events of Return of the Jedi.
Those events would include Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire stories.
Heir to the Empire (2021), Random House Worlds
What do you make of this rumor? Do you believe it? Is this something you might be interested in seeing Lucasfilm do?
Disney/ Lucasfilm you are not ready to to do that series but if you want to build a franchise you should look me up. I will build a franchise of stories and characters to rival the Infinity Saga.