Samuel L. Jackson on the new Star Wars: "I could be a ghost hologram. I don't care."

Samuel L. Jackson seriously wants to be in the new Star Wars movies. He doesn't care how it happens, he doesn't care how many arms he has or how dead he is, or if he has to somehow do this as Nick Fury instead of Mace Windu. But he's "geeked out" by the idea, and just wants his motherf***ing self in this movie if it's at all possible.

"It's like, okay, Obi-Wan was dead when Episode IV started, so maybe everyone thinks I'm dead and we'll find out what happened to Mace Windu. I can come back as one-armed or a one-handed Jedi that's still around that didn't actually die."

"'Tis but a scratch!" I dare Disney-Lucasfilm to turn down the chance to put their own Black Knight in the new Star Wars. (via Blastr)

• [Matthew Wong]

  If Samuel L. Jackson gets on board my excitement for episode 7 went up just a little bit. It was at “meh” and now it’s up to “hmm”

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    What if they also cast Pam Grier and Robert Forster?

    • [Ernest Valdemar]

       How about Antonio Fargas, Jr. and John Saxon?

      • [Antinous / Moderator]

        You can never have enough John Saxon.

• [Brainspore]

  Jackson is a fine actor in the right role, but he’s probably one of the least Jedi-like actors in Hollywood. Plus his character was frankly kind of an idiot.

  • [xzzy]

    Actors can only do what the script and director tells them to do.

    Any issues with him being a swordsman in a robe would have more to do with him being typecast than a failure in his ability to act.

    • [Brainspore]

      I don’t disagree with the awful script and directing, but whatever Jackson was in that movie was the exact opposite of “typecasting.” A Jedi elder should be calm, contemplative, averse to violence, and highly disciplined. Basically the opposite qualities of any role that Jackson has played to date.

      • [chris coreline]

        much as i agree with you in principle, unfortunately your argument is exhausted somewhat by the fact that Samuel L Jackson is fecking awesome.

        Also i think Yoda is the only Jedi Master who actually justifies his title, the rest are largley either arrogent or clueless or both.

        • [Brainspore]

          Yes, Samuel L. Jackson is awesome. But Mace Windu is a useless idiot.

          Remember in “Phantom Menace,” when two Jedi Knights report back to tell him that Naboo is under full-scale attack and they were nearly killed by an evil Sith Lord? He responds that the Jedi Council will immediately investigate using “all their resources…”

          …then just sends the same two guys back, with zero backup, to fight off a planetary invasion by themselves. Way to step up, Mace.

• [L_Mariachi]

  Obi-Wan was dead when Ep. IV started?

  • [Maneki Nico]

    [with a small wave of the hand] This isn’t the trivia you’re looking for.

    • [GlyphGryph]

       He was “dead”, yes. Obviously not REALLY dead, which is his entire point.

      • [V]

        “Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there’s usually only one thing you can do.” 
        “What’s that?”
        “Go through his clothes and look for loose change.”
        Oops – wrong swordsman, wrong movie.

        carry on…

      • [bill_mcgonigle]

         allow me to translate:  “Surely he must be dead by now?”

  • [Lupus_Yonderboy]

    Obi-Wan was thought to be dead, I can’t remember the quote but I believe he explains it to Luke that he let himself be thought dead along with the rest of the Jedi Council.  He’s living “off the grid” in the friggin’ boonies under an assumed name (“Old Ben” Kenobi) when ANH starts.

    • [retchdog]

      “so… you’re going into hiding with luke… on tatooine?”

      “yup! we’re going to be a good two or three miles apart, no problem there.”

      “uh-huh. on the very planet from which you rescued anakin in the first place, and where he was later traumatized because you didn’t lift a finger to help his mother?”

      “never thought of it that way before, but yeah. why not?”

      “why don’t you go… oh, never mind. do you at least have an alias?”

      “yeah: `old ben’. pretty subtle, huh?”

      “umm… okay, whatever.”

      • [retchdog]

         ”okay. i get it now. you’re risking the resistance and your life so you can train luke as a jedi and…”

        “no, not so much. i’mma chill and commune with yoda. maybe keep an anthropological record of the surviving sandpeople. i dunno.”

        • [rocketpjs]

          Might as well get a relative that Vader actually knows to watch the kid too.  No way he’d think of that when he is passing by the planet chasing some rebels.

        • [bill_mcgonigle]

          There will be no biological ‘Uncle Owen’ when Disney reboots Eps. 1-3.

      • [Lupus_Yonderboy]

        Oh yeah – please note that I did not say anything about this being a “good” plan…

• [kid_a_ok_com…]

  His character was but a bone thrown to the darker brothers.

  • [Steve Taylor]

    Perhaps so, but at least he was a step up from Lando Calrissian who – let’s face it – had a terrible moustache.

    • [Brainspore]

      No way. Lando was smart enough to figure out the rebel fleet was being led into a trap in less than 5 seconds, and he wasn’t even force-sensitive. Mace Windu didn’t figure out that Palpatine was evil for over a decade.

      Plus, it’s not every guy who can pull off a periwinkle cape with that much panache.

      • [Steve Taylor]

        I’ll give you the cape. Cape wearing isn’t easy.

        • [eldritch]

          Never forget.

      • [niktemadur]

        Who needs The Force, when you’ve got The Suave.

        • [Ernest Valdemar]

           ”Works every time.”

    • [Marc Mielke]

      Only if by ‘terrible’ you mean ‘awesome’!

    • [AnomicOfficeDrone]

      Anyone after Billy Dee is a step down. 

  • [Marc Mielke]

    There’s like a two thousand year difference, but Jolee Bindo would be perfect as a role combining Jedi Knight and ‘Standard Samuel L. Jackson Character”. 

• [ldobe]

  II’d have no qualms with him showing up as a Force Ghost. As long as he isn’t added to the growing crowd of Force Ghosts at the end of RotJ.

  • [Brainspore]

    Bringing any Jedi from the prequel trilogy back for the new movies is going to be problematic from a writing perspective, even as a force-ghost.

    “If you don’t mind me asking, Mr. Force-Ghost Windu… WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU DURING THE 20-YEAR PERIOD OF THE REBELLION AGAINST THE EMPIRE?”

    • [ldobe]

      … Perhaps he was learning the Force Ghost technique posthumously? Didn’t Yoda allude to that in Ep III vis- a- vis Quigon figuring out the technique after dieing? Or did I just infer something that wasn’t implied because I mis-parsed Yoda’s grammar?

      • [Brainspore]

        (Scene: Anakin Solo’s apartment, approximately 30 years after the Battle of Endor.)

        Windu: ”Ooooo…”

        Solo: ”Ahh! Who are you?”

        Windu: ”I’m the ghost of Mace Windu!”

        Solo: ”Who?”

        Windu: ”Oh, a Jedi Master who died a long time ago. I used to know your granddad, but then he cut off my hand and Palpatine threw me out a window.”

        Solo: ”Uh, sorry to hear that. So… why are you here now?”

        Windu: ”Oh, just seeing if there’s anything I can do to help out. I meant to come by earlier but I was still in Ghost School, learning how to commune with the living and all that.”

        Solo: ”For 50 years!? My uncle Luke said Master Kenobi was telling him to ‘use the force’ less than two hours after he died!”

        Windu: ”Oh, I think I see one little motherfucker who’s about to get force-slapped.”

    • [Marc Mielke]

      Or…umm….MANCE Windu?

    • [bill_mcgonigle]

       Frozen in carbonite.  He should be quite well preserved … if he survived the freezing process, that is.

      • [L_Mariachi]

        Carbonite preservation was still an experimental technique in the time of ESB — that’s why they used Han as a test subject before trying to freeze Luke.

        Something along those lines though. Maybe like Jean Grey, preserve his life essence in a paperweight that sits around on someone’s desk until some magic shit happens years later and brings him back to corporeal life.

        • [Dlo Burns]

          There’s always holocrons

• [niktemadur]

  Now if only broody, moody Harrison Ford had the enthusiasm that Mr Jackson has for the franchise.  But that’s why nobody wants to play Sega with the guy.
  http://www.icheg.org/blog/chegheads/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Brandon-Bird-No-One-Wants-To-Play-Sega-With-Harrison-Ford.jpg

  • [bcsizemo]

    It’s more likely no one wants to play on a Sega Master System…

• [niktemadur]

  I dare Disney-Lucasfilm to turn down the chance to put their own Black Knight in the new Star Wars

  I double dare you, motherfucker!

  A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was probably a planet named What, and they didn’t speak English there.

• [planettom]

  Back when he was cast in PHANTOM MENACE, Jackson similarly talked about on Letterman how he called up George Lucas and told him he was willing to play Luke Skywalker’s slave, if necessary.

  Then he mentioned his first day on the set…when he came to his trailer, and there in the closet was his brown jedi robe on a hanger with lightsaber attached, and he was like, “Oh YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…………….”

• [rocketpjs]

  He really should have been a badass bounty hunter or something.  Or maybe Dooku.

• [webstu]

  Holocron.

  Leading Jedi often left behind an interactive 3d image on a holocron, to train future jedi, and answer questions they alone would know.  The semi-living versions of themselves are limited in what they can answer, but much of their personality and desires are embodied within the Force-embued technology.

  So.  That would work. 

  SPOILER(?):  Although, I suspect that much of Luke’s future breakdown (a la Vader) would have to do with him **not** knowing how to run things very well after the Emperor’s purge of all things Jedi…  I predict it would end up Luke vs. Leia.  Leia was trained to rule; Luke, uh, wasn’t.  Archetypally, there are few other ways. 

  Plus:  ”If you leave now, help them you could; but you would destroy all for which they have fought, and suffered.”  And, he left.  Before there was a prophecy that Skywalker would bring balance; now there’s a prophecy that he would undo everything.  After all, there’s a reason it’s called Star **Wars**.

  • [rocketpjs]

     It would make a pretty boring series if the victory at the end of ROTJ was actually complete, and the next movies were a series of family dramas in peacetime. 

    That said, Disney owns it now and has shown a willingness to beat the horse into a black hole with the Marvel properties, so 20 years from now we could well be watching a dramatic film with no action that takes place on one of the planets. 

    • [chris coreline]

       oh yeah, that avengers thing, wasn’t that a terrible movy by a bad director with an awful plot that totally flopped :P

• [Hanglyman]

  I think it would be great if he were in it, but not as a Force ghost, at least not of his previous character (though admittedly, him being some random other character’s ghost might be a bit confusing). Ideally, it would be nice if the new Star Wars movies just never made any reference whatsoever to the prequels’ existence. Doing so can only drag them down, if they have any potential to be good in the first place.

• [vonbobo]

  This is a beloved franchise for stuff sakes! It’s not a means for A-listers to beg into an all expenses paid trip to disney land for a week.

  Maybe they will make him a purple space ship this time.

• [rocketpjs]

  The best thing they could do is re-boot the first 3 episodes before moving forward, instead of trying to build on that fucking awful foundation.  In that case, they could put a few of the better actors back in – but not, dear fucking god, whatsisname, Anakin.

  • [retchdog]

    Hayden Christiansen can act passably in other roles. I place the blame on Lucas. there’s only so much you can do with lines like “I don’t like sand… it’s coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere.”

    • [webstu]

      I think the plot, art direction, cinematography, special effects and much of the acting were great in the prequels.  

      The dialog was uneven, and generally anemic throughout.  You could tell that it was written by someone who seems to feel that having to converse IRL is more uncomfortable than a delight. So that was unfortunate.

      More importantly, the absence of Han Solo/Harrison Ford, however appropriate to the story, was *the* real loss for most (complaining) fans, and the actual source of most complaints, however they attempt to justify them. 

      But regardless, I’ll fight to the death over Jake Lloyd’s performance, which was very good, very consistent, very professionally done.  Watch the documentary on the “making of” to see the other two options.  Jake was clearly the best choice available.

      Perhaps I am a believer in Jake Lloyd’s performance because I’ve spent so much time with real children.  And most of the Episode 1 critics seem to be too young to have done so.  I think the absurd overacting that most child “actors” do is what seems unreal.  

      Jake did a fantastic job. And it’s high time these mindless critics lay off.

      • [retchdog]

         i don’t think people find jake lloyd’s performance to be poor. it’s just that the awful dialog sounds even worse coming out of a child. i shudder when i recall “now this is pod-racing!” ugh.

        i’ll have to disagree on plot, but i won’t argue it; it’s been done to death and no one is going to change their mind now. but i have to say, it appears that there was almost zero effort to make it match up to ep. 4-6 in anything other than the broadest way.

        • [webstu]

          Agree about the dialog.  

          It *really* needed a rewrite by someone chatty, capable of sparkling banter.My vote for best prequel moment ruined by un-sparkling dialog:  ”I don’t mind flying but what you’re doing is suicide.”  

• [peregrinus]

  SLJ should definitely reprise the Pulp Fiction speech (Ezekiel 25:17 – I googled it, I don’t know it myself), tinkered with to reflect Jedi philosophy.  It would make the grown-ups laugh, and impress the kidz.

  I’m watching all this with great curiosity.  Disney’s “Got Water” game with the character Swampy is phenomenal, and shows how when they get themselves together, they make something greater than great.

  If they can stitch together the new episodes with the same panache and integrity, we may be in for a treat.  Given CGI these days, some no-name actor could play Luke and then have Mark Hamill’s youthful face pasted on top.  Done well, we’d be getting the full organic and healthy Star Wars dose.

  And the whole thing will be much more socially networked.  No more feather-headed paperback sources for the backstories – we should be getting worlds and reams of information out of the studio.

  Unless, of course, they simply give Leia a big arse and lapdancer outfit.

  This is going to be a challenge.

• [Mikael Sundström]

  I asked Temuera Morrison last weekend at a Sci-fi fare, but Disney hadn’t been in contact with him about a Boba Fett movie :(

• [smallteam]

  Trying to figure out exactly how to fit Abe Vigoda into this narrative…

  • [Dlo Burns]

    Force mummy