Shade at Star Wars? Oscar Isaac reveals what would make him return to beleaguered franchise

He played the hotheaded fighter pilot Poe Dameron in the franchise’s sequel trilogy, which was brought about by Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm.

Released between 2015 and 2019, the trio of movies – comprising episodes seven through nine of the main film series – left fans sharply polarized.

The last film in the trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker, ultimately wound up making roughly half as much as the first one, The Force Awakens.

Last year it emerged that the box office profits Disney made from its Star Wars projects had yet to equal the $4 billion it spent buying Lucasfilm, via Forbes.

Now Oscar, 46, has shared his own thoughts on Star Wars, in an interview with Euphoria heartthrob Jacob Elordi for Variety.

Quoting a fan favorite line from The Simpsons, he said: ‘I’m a Star Wars,’ then explained that ‘I’d be a Star Wars again if there was something good to do with that.’

Meanwhile Daisy Ridley, who starred alongside Oscar in the sequel trilogy, will be resuming her role as Rey for an upcoming Star Wars film, the details of which have yet to be unveiled to the fanbase. 

In recent years, the Star Wars franchise scored a critical and audience success with the runaway triumph of the series The Mandalorian.

Pedro Pascal’s lead performance and the viral appeal of the adorable ‘baby Yoda’ have helped make the show a firm fan favorite.

However the big screen has lately proven less fruitful for Star Wars, from the diminishing returns of the sequel trilogy to the spin-off Solo flopping outright.

In 2020, one year after his last Star Wars film The Rise of Skywalker disappointed at the box office, Oscar announced he wanted to change tack in his career.

He shared that he felt he had arrived at ‘a personal turning point’ and hoped to devote more of his attention to independent projects.

As a result he was ‘probably’ less likely to return to the Star Wars universe, though he would reconsider if he ‘needs another house,’ he quipped to Deadline.

In the years since Star Wars, he has co-starred with Jessica Chastain in the HBO remake of Ingmar Bergman’s classic miniseries Scenes from a Marriage.

Although his work has included smaller projects like the dark comedy Big Gold Brick, he has also featured in larger tentpole movies like Dune: Part One.

Having played Gomez in the 2019 reboot of The Addams Family, he reprised his role for the sequel, which was released two years later.

He also had a voice role in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in 2023, and this year had a dual part as Jesus and Satan in the Christian cartoon The King of Kings.

The King of Kings featured a glittering cast including Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, Forrest Whitaker, Ben Kingsley and even Oscar’s old Star Wars co-star Mark Hamill, famous for playing Luke Skywalker. 

Fans will be able to see him as Victor Frankenstein in the upcoming movie adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, directed by Guillermo Del Toro.

After premiering at the Venice International Film Festival next week, the movie will be released on streaming via Netflix on November 7.