Should Nolan direct a Star Wars movie?

By: Jake Rajala

Christopher Nolan is one of the most prominent directors of all time. He is well known for The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Inception, and many more. With that said, a fascinating question surrounds him: Should he direct a Star Wars movie?

Nolan has been intrigued by directing a James Bond film. Well, Star Wars is another animal.

Nolan has declared that he loves Star Wars and that it influenced his sci-fi films. However, he also said he’s “scared to touch it”. I believe that’s rubbish. I believe he should take a gamble. If he fails, then he fails. Let’s not pretend “The Rise of Skywalker” had a 51% Rotten Tomatoes score!

On a scale from 1-10, how would you rate The Rise of Skywalker? pic.twitter.com/dXaTZ69zT9

— Star Wars Daily (@StarWarsDaily_) January 17, 2026

No, Nolan isn’t the same “actor” named Christopher Nolan in Rogue One.

Not only has Nolan hit on nearly every film he’s created. Of course, I’d say Tenet was the only average, somewhat confusing piece he’s made.

Now that we got that out of the way. Well, Star Wars has had many different directors. It isn’t new for them to branch out. J.J. Abrams, Ron Howard, Gareth Edwards, and soon Taika Waiti have made their mark on the beautiful franchise. I’d put Nolan up there with Abrams and Taika, to be honest.

Taika Waititi says his upcoming Star Wars movie will “harness a little more of the fun from the original films”

“The stakes are very high, and there are serious things going on, but there’s also a lot of fun to be had”

(Source: @Variety) pic.twitter.com/BQbwkhBWTa

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) January 24, 2026

Nolan needs to branch out if he wants to try and leave the same mark that directors like Stanley Kubrick or Steven Spielberg have left on audiences. He has comfort in making “space” movies, too.

Nolan could work on a spin-off, so he feels more comfortable with not messing up characters or key conflicts from the many Star Wars pieces.

Nolan is still working at a very high level. He recently made Oppenheimer and we’re all going to see “The Odyssey” this summer. He has plenty of time to ponder about whether Star Wars is a quality fit.

Christopher Nolan on THE ODYSSEY:

“As a filmmaker, you’re looking for gaps in cinematic culture, things that haven’t been done before. And what I saw is that all of this great mythological cinematic work that I had grown up with.”
pic.twitter.com/wdrdbgkTWF

— cinesthetic. (@TheCinesthetic) January 26, 2026

The riskiest thing I believe with Nolan making a Star Wars film is that he loves to use the same actors in his pieces. It may be a challenge for them to fit in a very unique franchise, like Star Wars. Some of them are elite and versatile, however. It would be pretty darn cool to see Matt Damon in Star Wars!