Zack Snyder's Star Wars movie is now an original project

Zack Snyder has revealed he did have a Star Wars idea after all, but it's now being worked on as an original project.

Vulture reported back in 2013 that Snyder had a movie inspired by Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai in the works at Lucasfilm. The movie would have focused on a group of Jedi, but would not have been connected to the Skywalker Saga.

"We talked about it," Snyder confirmed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. "But it never – I've been working on it, just away from the Star Wars universe, just on my own, just as a sci-fi thing... It's still a sci-fi thing, it's the same story, just kind of – now it's... I'm kind of, let Star Wars be Star Wars... The 11 year old me still wants to make that, now I just know how to, so maybe we'll see that someday."

The director also confirmed that the movie would not have featured any familiar Star Wars characters: "My idea was just, give me the keys and I'll take her for a spin… At that time, there was no Star Wars, Star Wars wasn't really – it was that middle time, it was right after they had done the prequels and before the sale [to Disney]... I just was like, 'You know what? I can fix that. I can do something.'"

Kurosawa served as an inspiration for George Lucas' original Star Wars trilogy, and his influence can also be felt in The Mandalorian – so it's not surprising that Snyder's idea also drew from his work. It's also not surprising that the project never moved forward: in 2013, Snyder was busy with the DCEU, with Man of Steel releasing that summer.

Following the prequel trilogy, the next Star Wars movie to hit the big screen was The Force Awakens, directed by J.J. Abrams. The sequel trilogy, which also comprises The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, received a mixed reception – but the saga isn't slowing down, with multiple spinoffs in the works.

Snyder, meanwhile, followed Man of Steel with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder's Justice League. His latest movie, Army of the Dead, is currently streaming on Netflix – and if you're caught up on its zombie-slaying mayhem, you can check out the best Netflix movies to watch now, and our ranking of the best Zack Snyder movies.

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.