'The Handmaid's Tale' Director Reed Morano Hints At Future Collaboration With Lucasfilm (Updated!)

By: Dominic Jones

Reed Morano, director of the first three episodes of the acclaimed Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale, may be about tho join the galaxy far, far away.  The director revealed in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter that she had recently met with Lucasfilm president (and Star Wars producer) Kathleen Kennedy and while she doesn't explicitly state that she's in the running for a Star Wars gig, she does hint that there may be more to come.

Morano told THR about her two and a half hour meeting with Kennedy,

"She's amazing. We're talking about adventure movies, and I'm not even remembering that she produced Goonies. Any movie that I put my finger on that I loved when I was growing up was a movie that she produced. Anyway, it was a great meeting. Obviously, I can't say anything about what else we were talking about."

In addition to her work on The Handmaid's Tale, Morano has also directed episodes of the HBO series Billions and is currently promoting her own, original sci-fi film, I Think We're Alone Now which stars Peter Dinklage and Elle Fanning.  Before becoming a director Morano also worked as a cinematographer, shooting projects like Frozen River, The Skeleton Twins, and the HBO series Vinyl.

It is interesting that Kennedy is meeting with someone who has some high profile television experience, including on an acclaimed series released on a streaming service, given that Lucasfilm is currently developing a live action Star Wars series for the upcoming Disney streaming service.  Since that series isn't expected to debut until late 2019, at the earliest (when the streaming service launches) it seems unlikely that Lucasfilm would be looking episodic directors just yet.  So perhaps Morano is being eyed for more of a showrunner position.  This is pure speculation at this point, but her experience working on TV shows for streaming services could be valuable to Lucasfilm.

It's also very possible that Morano is being considered for a Star Wars film.  After this year's Solo:A Star Wars Story and next year's Episode IX, little is known about what to expect from Star Wars films going forward.  There is currently no Star Wars film announced for 2020, and while we have some sense of what may becoming in the form of Rian Johnson's trilogy, there's also the question of stand alone films along the lines of Solo and Rogue One and if those will continue alongside Johnson's stand alone trilogy.  If Lucasfilm wants to continue making those films (and really, there's no reason not to), they would probably need to be looking for directors now. 

All that to say, there's plenty of possibilities for what Morano and Kennedy's meeting could have been about.  There's also a chance it wasn't about any of the stuff discussed above and was about something else entirely that we don't know about yet.  It's also worth noting that just because a director meets with Kennedy it doesn't mean they are guaranteed a Star Wars directing job.  Kennedy has spoken in the past about how she's had many meetings with countless directors to see who would be a good fit for Star Wars and only a handful ever actually get hired (and some don't even get to finish their films!)

Given Morano's track record, she would be a welcome addition to the Star Wars franchise, in whatever form that may take.  Hopefully we'll hear more about this from Morano and/or Lucasfilm in the not too distant future.

UPDATE: Morano has denied that she will be directing a Star Wars movie during an interview with IMDb at the Sundance Film Festival.  Morano was promoting her new film I Think We're Alone Now (starring Peter Dinklage and Elle Fanning), when she was asked about the story which blew up.  "It was just a meeting, and that's all I can say."  You can see the video below,

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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