Steven Spielberg Says He Will Never Direct a Star Wars Movie

Given that Steven Spielberg is one of the great directors of sci-fi and fantasy over the past 40 years, it seems inevitable that he would one day tackle a Star Wars movie. However, the filmmaker has now confirmed that this will never happen.

In a recent interview to promote his latest film The BFG, Spielberg revealed that while Star Wars creator George Lucas was a close friend, he wouldn't be taking on any future projects in the franchise. "I'm never going to make a Star Wars film. That's not my genre," he said, via the Toronto Sun. "It's certainly my buddy's--the Thomas Edison of science fiction, George Lucas, who created the entire series. But that was never for me. I'm just a fan. I'm just with everybody else in the audience watching them."

This isn't the first time Spielberg has been linked to the Star Wars universe. It has been rumoured for a long time that he was Lucas's first choice to direct 1983's Return of the Jedi. He also helped out in some capacity on Episode One: The Phantom Menace, even getting his own credit of 'Assistant Director, Action Sequences.'

Spielberg is set to direct a fifth Indiana Jones movie, the series that he and Lucas created together. Last week, the director sought to assure fans that, unlike 2008's badly-received Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the next film would be "straight down the pike for the fans."