Could This Director Tackle One of the Most Beloved 'Star Wars' Stories?

Any Star Wars fan knows that there is a rich world of extended universe stories that Disney could currently be plundering for new IP. The embattled Disney+ series The Acolyte got a little creative with the High Republic era, which comes a couple of centuries before the prequels, but there are literally thousands of years of stories that come before that.

One such story is found in the much-beloved video game, Knights of the Old Republic, first released in 2003.

The expansive RPG is set roughly 4,000 years before the Empire's rise. The plot follows a fight between the Galactic Republic and the Sith led by Darth Malak, the former apprentice to Darth Revan. The player begins as a Republic soldier with no memory of their past.

Fans love KOTOR for its shocking plot twist, which rivals the Darth Vader reveal from The Empire Strikes Back.

Darth Malak has never been officially established in the Disney-era canon, but Darth Revan recently popped up in LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy - Pieces of the Past.

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In 2019, Buzzfeed reported that a movie based on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was being written by Laeta Kalogridis. Then it fell off the radar.

But more recent rumors point to a Disney+ series, with industry insider Daniel Richtman reporting on Patreon, "Lucasfilms [sic] developing a show set during Knight [sic] of the Old Republic era" (via The Gamer).

Adapting KOTOR would present massive challenges for any director. The original game could easily consume over 40 hours of playtime. And a live-action version would require enormous budgets comparable to Andor, which cost Lucasfilm $645 million for two seasons.

It would be a heck of a project for any director to take on, and one has already expressed interest.

Speaking with SlashFilm, who asked about any franchises he'd like to direct, Primitive War director Luke Sparke name-dropped KOTOR specifically.

"Anything. I'll take anything at this point in time, but I'll take anything. But I would love to do Knights of the Old Republic. That or the Legacy comics that came out 20 years ago, which were set a hundred years after [Return of the] Jedi. It's a whole different thing. Yeah, that's what I'd like to tackle. That would be my dream.

Primitive War is a low-budget thriller set during the Vietnam War. Also, it features dinosaurs.

Sparke is an Australian director who has worked on major productions, including Steven Spielberg's The Pacific and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, in the costume and art departments before launching his directing career in 2014.

Hungry filmmakers with proven ability to stretch budgets could be a key to tackling expensive legacy projects. Disney would need someone with demonstrated resourcefulness in genre filmmaking.

An adaptation like this remains a hope for many Star Wars fans, but without anything concrete coming from Disney itself, we'll just keep waiting and enjoy the other franchise entries in the interim.

The Mandalorian and Grogu releases next year. Ryan Gosling's Star Wars: Starfighter will release in 2027.