Here's who's not committing to Star Wars today: J.J. Abrams, Guillermo del Toro, Jon Favreau, Colin Trevorrow

Several days on Earth have passed since last we heard rampant speculation over who will direct the new Star Wars movie—days filled with endless moments that could be filled with meaningful conversation. And yet, because we never take the time to say what needs to be said, we only have a handful of directors from that prospective list of "all of them" who have managed to save us the trouble of wondering whether they're going to take over the franchise. And actually, only one of them is a definite "no": J.J. Abrams, who is plenty busy with Star Trek anyway and—despite averring that Star Wars is "one of my favorite movies of all time"—has preemptively sidestepped the "burden" and the "almost fatal sacrilege" by taking himself out of the running, even though no one really thought he'd want to accept those in the first place. So after Abrams, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and Zack Snyder, that only leaves everyone else, provided we can stop all this frittering small talk and get right to the point.

Unfortunately, Guillermo del Toro, Jon Favreau, and Colin Tervorrow are incapable, by professional restraint or personal fear, of speaking directly from the heart, so they're a little more ambiguous about it. Of these, del Toro is probably the most straightforward, allowing that were he actually approached he "would then think about it," but also saying that he's already plenty busy, and calling his considering of a job offer no one's actually made a pure hypothetical, akin to "thinking if I want to date a supermodel." Favreau, however, was slightly more coy, reminding us that he's done a voice on Clone Wars and mixed sound at Skywalker Ranch, before acknowledging the many "question marks" surrounding who's going to do it. Yet, Favreau still insists he's "just giddy, first and foremost as a fan, to see what happens with it," and won't discuss it further because he doesn't trust us, apparently.

Finally, a similar approach was taken by Safety Not Guaranteed director Trevorrow, who responded to the rumor recently floated that he's in the running by discussing the franchise's importance to his generation, then saying, "There are a bunch of incredible directors who are up for this job." Trevorrow concluded, "That's all I can say about that"—and indeed that goes for just about everyone, until these directors finally open up and let us in.

 
Join the discussion...