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Over the past seven years, Collider’s track record has been pretty good. The reason is, before we run any “scoop,” we always make sure to double source it so we know the information is accurate. However, the story we are about to run has not been confirmed, and I want to make sure everyone knows this is not 100%. I only decided to run this because I trust my sources and it’s Star Wars. In addition, while I spent all weekend trying to lock this story down, all my normal connections would not go on record (or they did not know), so this is going up as a “rumor” and “unconfirmed.”

Now that I’ve warned you this is just a “rumor”….

I’m hearing that Matthew Vaughn, the director of Kick-Ass, Stardust, Layer Cake, and X-Men: First Class, is in talks with Lucasfilm to helm Star Wars: Episode VII. My sources tell me this is the main reason he dropped out of the X-Men sequel (which Bryan Singer is now directing). Hit the jump for more.


As most of you know, last week Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion dollars and they also announced a 2015 release date for Star Wars: Episode VII. Seconds after the deal was announced, a bunch of interviews were released featuring Disney CEO Bob Iger and George Lucas talking about the business deal, and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and Lucas discussing Star Wars: Episode VII and revealing that they’ve already met with writers for the new film. It was clear that this deal has been in the works for awhile.

As such, it makes a lot of sense that while we only just heard this news, behind-the-scenes Lucasfilm has been working hard to land a director to helm the new installment.

Now you have to ask yourself, why would Vaughn abruptly drop out of helming the X-Men sequel when the head of 20th Century Fox (Tom Rothman) is leaving the studio? After all, while Rothman helped make some great moviesover the past few years, he’s also known as a micro-manager that can rub some filmmakers the wrong way. With Rothman out, I imagine Vaughn would have had more creative control on the sequel and it would have been an easier film to make.

But if Lucasfilm offered Vaughn the keys to Star Wars, that’s something he’d likely jump ship for.

While many of you might be wondering if Vaughn can handle directing a Star Wars movie, I really think he’s a great choice. After all, he made a fantastic X-Men movie that successfully rebooted the franchise, his work with a limited budget on Kick-Ass was also great, and Stardust proved he can make one hell of an adventure film.

In addition, Vaughn is a writer. He worked on the scripts for X-Men: First Class, The Debt, Stardust and Kick-Ass (with Jane Goldman) so if he ends up directing Star Wars, we’d also be getting someone that could solve script issues on set. It’d be great if he could convince Goldman to come onboard as well.

So is Vaughn lining up to direct the full new trilogy or just the first film? I have no idea. But I’d imagine if this deal does happen, it would be similar to the one Marc Webb has on Spider-Man, which is they’ll do it on a film by film basis, with the assumption that if the first film is a success and he wants to come back, he could.

Anyway, as I have already said many times, for now Vaughn directing Star Wars is just a “rumor.” I’d imagine after this posts, it’ll either be confirmed or it will blow up in my face. I’m hoping it’s true.

This is the most excited I’ve been for Star Wars since 1998 and I honestly cannot wait to see the new movie in 2015. What about you?

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