'The Last Starfighter' Scrapped Sequel Idea Would Have Brought Back Original Cast

A sequel to The Last Starfighter that never made it past the planning stages would have brought back the cast of the original film, according to a new interview with Nick Castle, who directed the original film.

Castle has been doing the rounds lately in support of a 4K reissue of Halloween, a film in which he was one of a number of people who played "the shape" (Michael Myers), and in an interview with Bloody Disgusting, he teased some details about a decade-old attempt to get a second Starfighter up and running.

"This was 10 years ago or more, maybe 12 years ago," Castle said. "I think it was 2005 and it was going to be at that point a 30 year, 35 year sequel. It was literally a sequel where Lance [Guest] and Catherine Marie [Stewart], the leads were going to come back as parents. We had a fun script so I'm not sure right now where Jonathan [Betuel] is going to take it. He has a partner named Gary Whitta who wrote Rogue One so he's in good company there. Hopefully, they'll mount something fun and we'll see our characters again."

The 1984 original centered on Alex (Guest), who earns a high score on an arcade game, only to discover that the game -- "The Last Starfighter," natch -- is in fact a sophisticated recruitment device for a genuine revolution in space. Drafted into service and belted into the cockpit, Alex became the only hope of an oppressed alien race in need of a hero.

Betuel and Castle were setting up the film at Relativity last time around, but rights issues got in the way of the movie ever being made. Shortly after that, Relativity itself folded (one of the many times that the planned reboot of The Crow was forced to start over again).

In 2015, those rights issues were reportedly resolved, and both a movie sequel and a TV revival were rumored at various points. Betuel will not be working with Castle, but will apparently still be attached to the project.

"Now just this last year, the writer has retained the rights legally now," Castle said. "So he's going to go out a second time around and get this thing done. I won't be a part of it as a director. Hopefully, I'll help out in the background but we'd love to do that. It's so ready. The '80s, of course, are being mined by everything. It's like the last thing that has not gotten remade or had a sequel. I'd love to see that continue on."