10 Terrible Star Wars Ideas That Nearly Happened

7. Directed By... David Lynch

Due to the number of other roles he had taken on, along with a seeming dissatisfaction with the job, Lucas decided not to direct the second and third parts of his trilogy. Ivan Kershner was given the job for Empire, but Return was offered to a few different names before ending up in the hands of Ross Marquand.

One of those was David Lynch, coming off the back of Oscar nominated The Elephant Man. When he turned it down - after seeing things like Wookiees in the script - it was offered to David Cronenberg, who also said no.

There is a lot to praise about both men, who are two great visionary talents, yet it's hard to imagine either as being a good fit for Star Wars. Neither really work in the same wheelhouse as the Star Wars saga, and both would want a free reign they couldn't have with Lucas around.

Lynch instead went on to make Dune, which bombed at the box-office and with critics, and he blamed it on not having full artistic control. The exact same thing would've happened had he chosen the other big sci-fi movie being offered to him at the time.