Devotion Director J.D. Dillard Says His Star Wars Movie Is ‘No Longer a Thing’

Devotion and Sleight director J.D. Dillard has confirmed his Star Wars movie is “unfortunately no longer a thing.”

Speaking to TheWrap, Dillard opened up about the Star Wars film that was reportedly in the works in 2020 with Luke Cage writer Matt Owens. That news arrived after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Lucasfilm’s decision to have movies from that galaxy far, far away go on a “bit of a hiatus.”

While Dillard wasn’t ready to fully discuss what the film would have been about, he did confirm that the project was “unfortunately no longer a thing,” While he admitted “it was not for lack of trying,” the fact of the matter remains that getting a movie on the big screen, especially a Star Wars movie, is no easy feat. He still loves the idea of making a space movie, but now “it will be an original idea.”

Dillard did share that the PC game Star Wars: TIE Fighter was his first introduction into Star Wars and it forever changed his life.

“My dad being an aviator, we had a bunch of flight simulators,” Dillard said. “I’m playing this [Star Wars: 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.”

Moving on from Star Wars, Dillard also said he isn’t attached to Disney’s The Return of the Rocketeer, a project he’s been linked to since 2020.

“I am not on that movie,” Dillard said. “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.

“I’m definitely trying to, as hopefully you can tell between ‘Sleight,’ ‘Sweetheart’ and ‘Devotion,’ not to make the same movie twice. I’m going to keep it steady on that.”

As to that period aviation comment, Dillard was speaking of Devotion, his upcoming film starring Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell that tells the true story of two elite U.S. fighter pilots during the Korean War. Devotion will be released in theaters on November 23, 2022.

Lastly, Dillard discussed the reports that he was loosely attached to J.J. Abrams’ Black Superman project. Despite getting his start by working with Abrams on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Dillard says this project was “something I have never spoken about.”

“J.J. is a hero of mine, a mentor and someone very dear to me. He totally has my email and phone number if that is ever to be a conversation,” Dillard said. “But that is not something I have been introduced to.”

This news follows the report that Stranger Things and Deadpool 3 director Shawn Levy is in talks to direct a Star Wars movie. That project joins other confirmed and reported Star Wars projects from Damon Lindelof and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Taika Waititi, Patty Jenkins, and Rian Johnson.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.