10 Directors Who Said NO To Star Wars

After producing the acclaimed animated adventures that were The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille, Brad Bird turned his attention to live-action filmmaking with Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.

And when that fourth M:I movie turned out to be a huge success, too, becoming the highest-grossing movie in that franchise at the time and being saluted by critics, it wasn't long before the galaxy far, far away came calling.

Like so many directors doing their thing in the industry, Bird was quite the fan of Star Wars. Rather than jumping at the chance to be the guy to direct the first Star Wars movie in a decade though, Bird's other commitments at the time meant he simply couldn't say yes to Disney and Lucasfilm.

He was already well into production on Tomorrowland, another Disney picture, and though he initially thought there could be a way to go right from that movie into Episode VII, he soon realised that would mean he couldn't give Tomorrowland the attention he felt it deserved (via MTV/Collider).

So, Bird opted to stick with the picture and dream he'd already started to make happen (via The Hollywood Reporter), a move which set the stage for J. J. Abrams to become the director of what became The Force Awakens.

Sadly, Tomorrowland didn't do anywhere near as well as Bird would have hoped, but he at least bounced back with 2018's $1.2 billion hit Incredibles 2 and is currently developing the third film in the series.

In other words, the Force is still strong with this one.