Taking over Star Wars was never going to be an ordinary directing assignment. The first movie after George Lucas’ original six movies had to bring lon
Taking over Star Wars was never going to be an ordinary directing assignment. The first movie after George Lucas’ original six movies had to bring longtime fans back while introducing characters who could carry another trilogy. Whoever accepted the job would also inherit decades of expectations about what a Star Wars movie should look and feel like.
J.J. Abrams ultimately took on that challenge with The Force Awakens, returning the franchise to theaters on December 18, 2015. The movie paired Daisy Ridley’s Rey and John Boyega’s Finn with returning favorites, including Harrison Ford’s Han Solo, setting up a novel conflict built around the First Order. But another established filmmaker had the opportunity to consider taking that first trip back to a galaxy far, far away.
Ben Affleck has confirmed that Lucasfilm approached him about directing The Force Awakens, and he passed because he didn’t believe he was the right person for it. Speaking with Josh Horowitz on Happy Sad Confused, Affleck acknowledged that he liked Star Wars but felt the job needed someone with a stronger attachment to the franchise. “Someone who has more passion for this is going to do a better job,” he explained.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes
Which Star Wars Crew Should You Join?
Falcon · Ghost · Skeleton Crew · Razor Crest
Eight forthright questions about how you actually are: what your friends come to you for, how you handle a night that falls apart, what you want out of work, what keeps you going. Answer them and we will tell you which ship has your seat. Four crews are hiring: the smugglers, the rebels, the kids who got hopelessly lost, and the one man who works alone until he does not.
Falcon(Original Trilogy)
Ghost(Star Wars Rebels)
Skeleton Crew(Skeleton Crew)
Razor Crest(The Mandalorian)
FIND YOUR CREW →
01
What role do you play in your friend group?
Everybody has one, whether they admit it or not.
AThe one who talks us out of trouble.
BThe one who keeps everybody together.
CThe one who suggests the bad idea.
DThe one who turns up and fixes it.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
How do you pack for a trip?
This says more about people than it should.
ALast minute, and I always forget something.
BEnough for me and whoever forgot theirs.
COne bag of nonsense and no real plan.
DExactly what I need and nothing more.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
Your plans collapse an hour before. What do you do?
Everybody reacts to this differently.
ACome up with something better on the spot.
BGet everybody on a call and sort it out.
CGo out anyway and see what happens.
DStay in, quite happily.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
What would you actually want out of a job?
Be forthright rather than impressive.
AGood money and nobody watching me.
BWork that means something, even if it pays badly.
CSomething different every single day.
DClear terms, paid on time, left alone.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
What do people come to you for?
You already know which one it is.
AGetting them out of something.
BHolding it together when things get bad.
CMaking a lifeless day engaging.
DThe thing nobody else wants to do.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
How do you handle a disagreement with a friend?
This is where people differ most.
AJoke about it now, deal with it later.
BTalk it out properly, however long it takes.
CForget the whole thing within an hour.
DSay very little, then quietly fix it.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
What does a really good Saturday night look like?
No wrong answers, but there are revealing ones.
ASomewhere raucous with people I like.
BA long dinner at home with my favourite few.
COut with no plan at all.
DQuiet, alone, and completely content about it.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What actually keeps you going?
Eight questions in, this is the one that picks your crew.
AFreedom, and the money that pays for it.
BBeing part of something worth fighting for.
CCuriosity, mostly.
DOne person who depends on me.
REVEAL MY CREW →
Docking Clamps Released
Your Crew Is…
Four ships, four completely different reasons to be up there at all.
Here is the one that has your seat, what flying with them would cost you, and what it would give
back.
Millennium Falcon
You belong on the fastest piece of junk in the galaxy, with a
crew that took the job for the payday and then quietly stopped caring about the payday.
Nothing on the Falcon has ever gone according to plan, and everybody aboard prefers it that
way.
- You improvise better than you prepare, which is why you keep ending up in situations
that a careful person would have avoided. - The Falcon is the only ship on this list that is genuinely comical, and half of that comes
from it breaking at the worst possible moment. - You would pretend the whole thing is transactional right up until somebody you like is
in trouble, and then the pretending stops instantly. - This crew is the reason the rebellion had a chance at all, and not one of them would
ever admit to that out raucous.
The Ghost
You belong with the crew that turned a minuscule cell of misfits into
an actual rebellion. The Ghost is a home before it is a ship, and everybody who boards it
arrived with something broken that the rest of them decided to look after.
- Found family is the whole engine here, and Rebels earns it by making you watch these
people choose each other over and over again. - You are in it for the cause, but what actually keeps you going is the four people who
would notice immediately if you stopped showing up. - Hera is one of the best captains in the franchise, and the show is shrewd enough to make
her competence the still centre of everything. - This crew pays for its wins, which is exactly what makes the wins land the way they do.
The Skeleton Crew
You belong with the four kids who found a buried ship, launched
it by accident and are now extremely lost in a galaxy that eats people like them. Nobody
here knows what they are doing, and that turns out to be the fun of it.
- Your instinct is to open the door that says do not open, and you would do it again
tomorrow. - Skeleton Crew is the closest Star Wars has come to an eighties adventure movie, where
the stakes are real but the wonder never gets sanded off. - You make friends out of whoever is standing next to you when things go wrong, which is a
genuinely useful survival skill. - The pirates in this one are properly frightening, and that is precisely why the kids
being out of their depth works so well.
The Razor Crest
You belong in the quietest ship in the galaxy, with one diminutive
passenger and a code you have never explained to anybody. You told yourself this was a job,
and then it stopped being a job somewhere around the second week.
- You work alone by preference and by habit, which lasts exactly as long as it takes for
somebody diminutive to need looking after. - The Mandalorian works because almost nothing gets said out raucous, and the armour does the
acting that a face usually would. - Your loyalty is narrow and absolute, so there are very few people on your list and
nothing will move you off it. - The Mandalorian and Grogu took all of that to the massive screen over Memorial Day 2026, the
first Star Wars film in seven years.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
Ben Affleck Didn’t Think Being a Star Wars Fan Made Him the Right Director
Affleck’s account makes the decision sound straightforward. Lucasfilm asked whether he was interested, and he considered whether his enthusiasm would be enough to make the movie work. “I thought, ‘I like Star Wars, and I’m a fan, but I’m not the person to direct this movie,’” he recalled. It’s an forthright distinction from a filmmaker who could have treated the size of the opportunity as reason enough to accept. He also questioned what he could bring to a franchise that already had such a defined identity. Affleck said he didn’t know whether he could make a great version of Star Wars or reinvent it, pointing to the difficulty of that task. His concern was about whether he could deliver, even with a property he enjoyed. Liking the movies didn’t give him an immediate answer about how to make the next one.
Looking back, Affleck noted that the challenge has continued for the filmmakers who did take it on. “It hasn’t been easy for them to reinvent that franchise,” he said, while also acknowledging that some have done well. He pointed to a fan base with forceful opinions, something any director entering Star Wars has to contend with. His comments don’t single out a particular movie or filmmaker as the problem.
Abrams directed The Force Awakens and later returned for The Rise of Skywalker. The next trip to a galaxy far, far away hits theaters May 28, 2027, with Shawn Levy‘s Starfighter. Stay tuned at Collider for more.
Studio
Walt Disney Pictures
Run Time
138 minutes
Director
J.J. Abrams
Rating
PG-13
