Guillermo del Toro Reveals His Scrapped ‘Star Wars’ Movie Would’ve Followed the ‘Rise and Fall of Jabba the Hutt’

A month after revealing that he was once in talks to direct a Star Wars spinoff, Guillermo del Toro has offered more details regarding the now-scrapped film.

During a Q&A with Collider, the celebrated director confirmed he was involved with a film centered on the Star Wars crime lord Jabba the Hutt.

“We had the rise and fall of Jabba the Hutt, so I was super happy,” del Toro said. “We were doing a lot of stuff, and then it’s not my property, it’s not my money, and then it’s one of those 30 screenplays that goes away. Sometimes I’m bitter, sometimes I’m not. I always turn to my team and say, ‘Good practice, guys. Good practice. We designed a great world. We designed great stuff. We learned.’”

Del Toro continued by maintaining that he isn’t “ungrateful” about the project being axed, as he’s learned from the disappointment that comes with rejection.

“You can never be ungrateful with life,” he shared. “Whatever life sends you, there’s something to be learned from it. So, you know, I trust the universe, I do. When something doesn’t happen, I go, ‘Why?’ I try to have a dialogue with myself. ‘Why didn’t it happen?’ And the more you swim upstream with the universe, the less you’re gonna realize where you’re going.”

Since the turn of the century, Guillermo del Toro has established himself as one of the best living directors, and for good reason. The 59-year-old, who’s directed 12 films, has won three Academy Awards: two for 2017’s The Shape of Water (Best Picture and Best Director) and one for his most recent movie, Pinocchio, which won Best Animated Feature at this year’s Oscars.