10 Directors Who Said NO To Star Wars
7. David Lynch
Another director who was asked whether he fancied bringing the original trilogy to an end, the late, and undeniably great David Lynch had a similar response to David Cronenberg.
Around that time, the masterful director had brought the likes of Eraserhead and The Elephant Man to the screen. And George Lucas clearly saw those critical hits and felt that Lynch had what it took to be trusted with his galaxy far, far away.
However, the mind who would eventually give the world Twin Peaks said "no" to the opportunity after meeting with Lucas.
In the Lynch on Lynch book (via SlashFilm), it's mentioned that the director just didn't really like sci-fi all that much if it wasn't combined with other genres. That, combined with the fact that "Star Wars was totally George's thing," resulted in him passing on the movie.
He's also explained in the past about how the whole meeting gave him a headache, with Lynch clearly not being all that excited about working with Wookiees in George's world. This was before they were changed to Ewoks, of course.
Lynch felt Lucas should have just directed it, but he'd ultimately land on Richard Marquand to steer the ship.
In the end, Lynch would make his Dune movie instead of Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, a project based on Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi tales, and those books actually heavily influenced Lucas when he began creating his own popular series.
And speaking of Dune...