Takashi Yamazaki, director of Godzilla Minus One, has expressed a desire to make a Star Wars film.
Godzilla Minus One is Toho’s latest kaiju blockbuster, taking place in post-war Japan, and focuses on the original purpose behind the design of the King of the Monsters. It has received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike since it premiered in October 2023 in Shinjuku at the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival.
In a recent interview with /Film, Yamazaki stated “I watched Star Wars, and that’s how I ended up being a filmmaker…I’m really hoping I will get a call and they will bring me on Star Wars.”
Even though Lucasfilm does not have a good track record of getting Star Wars films made by the directors it hires for them, a film created by Yamazaki could be incredible.
Yamazaki is an outstanding visual FX lead and has an office with shelves and shelves of Star Wars model kits from Bandai. His expertise in this design department is clearly shown in Minus One, as the CGI effects create Godzilla as a monster that moves and interacts with the environment as a combination of a living beast as well as a man in a suit.
Despite its smaller budget, Godzilla Minus One has been noted by fans as looking significantly better than most Hollywood films. For reference, the film had a budget of 15 million USD, which is 10 times less than the 2014 reboot by Legendary Pictures, which cost 160 million USD. Gareth Edwards, the director of the American picture, praised the work of Yamazaki.
Lucasfilm and Disney have currently plotted the big screen return of Star Wars with several features in development, as announced at Celebration 2023. One of them is an untitled film starring Rey (Daisy Ridley) that takes place 15 years after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
Godzilla Minus One is currently showing in theaters worldwide, premiering in the United States on December 1, 2023.