Good news: More Star Wars movies are in the works! Bad news: They’re being written and produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, creators of HBO’s Game of Thrones and two more in a long line of white men who have been entrusted to tell new stories within the Star Wars universe. As we have no interest in a Thrones-esque, grimdark Star Wars trilogy, we took five minutes and came up with a list of directors whose brilliant, insightful, irreverent, badass voices we would love to see in future Star Wars installments instead.
Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, What We Do in the Shadows)
Star Wars is a universe that handles humor very well when people make an effort to inject it, and that’s pretty much Taika Waititi’s bag. Plus he could brighten up the occasionally drab, desert-y color palette a la Thor: Ragnarok.
Ava DuVernay (A Wrinkle in Time, Selma, 13th)
With her boundless imagination, Ava DuVernay works within an established universe while much putting her own spin on it in a way that looks magical.
Ryan Coogler (Black Panther, Creed, Fruitvale Station)
Black Panther. Enough said.
Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman, Monster)
She’s got a multi-billion dollar franchise down pat. We know there’s more to her than the amazing Wonder Woman, and we can’t wait to see it.
The Wachowskis (The Matrix, Sense8, Juptiter Ascending)
Anyone who made Jupiter Ascending should get the chance to return to space.
Justin Lin (Star Trek: Beyond, Fast & Furious)
Jodie Foster (Black Mirror, Little Man Tate)
If we want a pensive, introspective political thriller…
Amma Assante (Belle)
Our choice for an adaptation of Bloodline.
Sofia Coppola (Marie Antoinette, The Beguiled, Lost in Translation)
Please give us a film about Padmé’s handmaidens, and/or the Canto Bight standalone!
Jordan Peele (Get Out)
Because you know there’s a corner of the Star Wars universe as scary as the Sunken Place.
Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water, Crimson Peak, Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, Hellboy)
Please adapt Dark Disciple and change the ending.
Rachel Talalay (Doctor Who, Sherlock)
Watch a Jedi punch a wall harder than diamond over, and over, and over…
Kathryn Bigelow (Strange Days, Zero Dark Thirty, The Hurt Locker)
She’s an Oscar-winning director with a 20-plus-year career of action films who has somehow never gone to space.
Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird)
It is canon that Leia Organa and Amilyn Holdo are friends in their teens. Really, who else could make that movie?
Karyn Kusama (Æon Flux, Jennifer’s Body, The Invitation)
There isn’t a lady scoundrel in the Star Wars universe, but we could for sure use one.
Jennifer Kent (The Babadook)
More psychological horror in Star Wars, please.
Nacho Vigalondo (Colossal, V/H/S Viral)
Nacho Vigalondo is excellent at genre-hopping, as demonstrated by Colossal’s blend of small town drama, black comedy, and oh yeah giant kaiju/robot battles.
Michelle MacLaren (Game of Thrones, Westworld, The Walking Dead)
All of the SFF TV series mentioned above, plus Wonder Woman before she left and Patty Jenkins took over… She has the resumé for this.
Bong Joon-ho (Snowpiercer, Okja)
Between The Host and Snowpiercer, he’s super inventive at both adaptations and his own original stories, and has a sideways kind of humor that Star Wars could really use.
Top image via Carrie Fisher’s Twitter
