Guillermo del Toro almost directed a Star Wars movie

The Star Wars galaxy is littered with what-ifs and abandoned projects. For every movie or TV show that actually makes it to the screen, there are countless others that never leave the development stage, fizzling out like a dying star in the Outer Rim. Remember when George Lucas personally asked David Lynch to direct Return of the Jedi, only for the Blue Velvet filmmaker to turn him down? Or when Colin Trevorrow was set to direct the ninth Skywalker film, until he was replaced by a returning J.J. Abrams?

Now we can add Guillermo del Toro to the list of filmmakers who almost had a hand in a galaxy far, far away. Screenwriter David S. Goyer recently appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, where he revealed that he wrote a Star Wars script four years ago, with Del Toro attached to direct.

"There was just a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff going on at Lucasfilm at the time," said Goyer, who's known for his work on Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight films, Man of Steel, and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. "But it's a cool script."

Del Toro himself confirmed the news on social media, saying his Star Wars film was in development "MANY, MANY moons ago." The Shape of Water and Pinnocchio filmmaker said he couldn't share any details, but he hinted at the project's possible subject with three letters: "J" and "BB."

Those letters, of course, seem to point to Jabba the Hutt, everyone's favorite seedy intergalactic crime lord. Imagine how much fun a Del Toro-directed Jabba movie might have been! And imagine what kinds of strange creatures and gorgeous practical effects Del Toro might have added to the Star Wars canon.

Alas, it sounds like the abandoned film will never come to fruition, joining other scrapped Del Toro projects like his version of The Haunted Mansion and his planned Hobbit trilogy.

Goyer also said he wrote a second unused script treatment for Lucasfilm, which would've taken place 25,000 years before the main films and chronicled the very early days of the Jedi Order. It's a concept that sounds quite similar to James Mangold's untitled Star Wars movie, which was announced earlier this year and will focus on the first-ever Jedi to wield the Force.

In the meantime, Lucasfilm has plenty of other Star Wars films in development. In addition to Mangold's movie, there's a project directed by Dave Filoni, set during the New Republic era. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is also directing a film about Daisy Ridley's Rey, set after the events of 2019's The Rise of Skywalker.

For more Star Wars news and analysis — including exclusive interviews with stars like Rosario Dawson, Pedro Pascal, and more — listen to EW's Dagobah Dispatch podcast.

Related content:

• Ahsoka awakens: Rosario Dawson's journey from 'hyped fangirl' to lightsaber-wielding warrior
• Star Wars gets 3 new movies, Daisy Ridley's Rey to return as Jedi master
• Donald Glover's Lando show is actually a Lando movie