The Flash Star Michael Shannon Explains Why He Rejected Star Wars Role

The interconnected, never-ending narrative of Star Wars is still going strong, and is bringing a lot of surprising actors and creators into its ensemble. With the franchise thriving in Disney+ television series in the past few years, and three new movies in the cards, the question of who is and isn’t joining the galaxy far far away is definitely exciting — but now, we know one actor who rejected a role in the franchise. In a recent interview with Empire Magazine (via Insider), Man of Steel and Boardwalk Empire star Michael Shannon confirmed that he turned down a Star Wars role in 2016.

“I’m always a bit wary about those giant movies. Because they take a lot of time and I don’t find them very stimulating to work on. I don’t ever want to get stuck in a franchise,” Shannon explained. “I don’t find them interesting and I don’t want to perpetuate them. If I’m making something, I want there to be some kind of purpose to it — I don’t want to make mindless entertainment. The world doesn’t need more mindless entertainment. We’re inundated with it.”

What will be the next Star Wars movie?

The next Star Wars blockbuster is expected to be the currently-untitled movie from Ms. Marvel director Sharmeed Obaid-Chinoy, which will see the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey. Earlier this year, it was revealed that co-writers Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson have both departed the project, with Peaky Blinders‘ Stephen Knight brought on to rewrite the script. In a recent interview with Yahoo! UK, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy provided an update on that film, and revealed that it will still be some time before a new version of the script is ready.

“We’ve been working on that [film] for a few years and all of that feeds in to our overall storytelling,” Kennedy explained in a recent interview. “So we’ve just got to a point now where we’ve got a wonderful writer in Steven Knight, he’s come on board and we’re going to see a script probably in the next month and a half that we’ve been working on for quite a while. So we’re getting close.”

 “There’s never a time where something is just instantly suggested,” Kennedy added. “It’s such an evolution of conversations that we have all the time and we knew coming off of The Rise of Skywalker that we needed to take that further. We just didn’t know how far out; we didn’t know exactly what the story might be – but now we have a much better idea.”

What do you think of Michael Shannon turning down a Star Wars role? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!