Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds recently shared that he brought a fresh Star Wars concept to Disney’s doorstep — one that would take the galaxy far, far away into more mature, emotionally complex territory. Speaking on The Box Office Podcast, the actor revealed, “I pitched to Disney, I said, ‘Why don’t we do an R-rated Star Wars property?'”
“It doesn’t have to be overt, A+ characters, there’s a wide range of characters you could use, and I don’t mean R-rated to be vulgar. R-rated is a Trojan horse for emotion. I always wonder why studios don’t want to just gamble on something like that,” he added.
The proposal comes at a time when Ryan, now ranked as the world’s second-highest paid actor following the massive success of his Marvel crossover project, Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024, has increasingly stepped into producing and creative development roles. Since taking on a producer’s mantle with Deadpool in 2016, he’s leaned further into storytelling from behind the scenes.
Addressing assumptions about whether he’d want to star in the proposed Star Wars project, he clarified, “I’m not saying I want to be in it — that would be a bad fit. I would want to produce and write or be a part of behind the scenes.”
The idea of a riskier, emotionally potent Star Wars installment isn’t without precedent. The franchise, which originated with George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope in 1977, has long embraced weighty emotional arcs and political nuance — themes that have since carried over into various spinoffs like The Mandalorian and Andor. Ryan seemed to be referencing these series when reflecting on how Star Wars has evolved, particularly in terms of its presence on streaming platforms.
He contrasted the experience of watching movies in theaters with streaming at home, saying, “You’re never going to get the same emotional investment from a streamer that you are from a theatrical movie, because they’re getting in cars and paying for parking, and babysitters, and sitting down, and watching the movie, and then driving home. That’s the emotional investment you can try to sell.” In his view, a bolder rating could help compensate for the lower emotional buy-in that typically accompanies home viewing.
“On a streamer, my only note, always, is that, for God’s sake, with everything you can, to grab them in that first shot, like that first thing that happens in the movie… Start with something, ‘Holy s**t!’ and then, ‘How did we get here?’” he emphasised. “Streamers, I think that model is even more important because we have all these distracto-fat things clogging our arteries of attention, and it is so easy to tune out unless you have them right at the top,” Ryan added.
