Liam Neeson has once again shared his thoughts on the Star Wars universe and how Disney and Lucasfilm have been treating the franchise. The actor recently appeared on the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast and when asked if he gets approached a lot for autographs by fans, he said:
“Not all the time. I mean it is a cult. There’s so many movies and spin-offs now I think it’s diluting the whole thing, that’s my personal thing. Occasionally there’s kids after a Star Wars autograph and I don’t want to give autographs at the airport. Oh but it’s not the kid, it’s the grandfather, there he is – or the dad.”
This isn’t the first time that Neeson has talked about the Star Wars franchise being diluted. He previously said:
“There’s so many spinoffs of Star Wars. It’s diluting it to me, and it’s taken away the mystery and the magic in a weird way.”
Also, don’t expect Neeson to show up in another Star Wars project again. When he was asked about the possibility of appearing in a spin-off prequel he said:
“No more Star Wars for me. As much as I love the franchise, there are just too many of them now. I’ve lost track, but it’s just too many.”
The Star Wars universe has been expanding with the live-action shows, but Lucasfilm has had a rough time trying to get the movie side of things started again. They’ve got several projects in development now which include James Mangold‘s film about the discovery of the Force, set 25,000 years before the Skywalker Saga. Dave Filoni will continue the Mando-verse era with a big event movie that will conclude the story he started telling years ago. There’s also the Daisy Ridley Rey Skywalker project, and Taika Waititi’s project. Oh yeah, and how can I forget the Rian Johnson trilogy that everyone continues to say is eventually going to happen?
One thing is for sure, Neeson’s return as Qui-Gin Jinn was completely wasted in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.