With two Academy Award wins under her belt for directing and producing Nomadland, Chloé Zhao will have been fielding offers from all over Hollywood, and that’ll be especially true once her Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster Eternals hits theaters next month.
Diving straight into a big budget cosmic epic right after delivering an acclaimed awards season favorite allows the filmmaker to stretch her creative muscles at completely different ends of the cinematic spectrum, and should Eternals live up to the buzz, hype and anticipation, she’ll have proven herself equally adept at either end of the scale.
Zhao’s only upcoming project that’s been announced so far is a futuristic sci-fi Western version of Dracula, but in a new interview with Empire Magazine, Zhao gave a rather cryptic answer when asked if she’d have any interest in boarding the Star Wars franchise.
“Hmmmm. I have to tread very carefully with what I say here. Yes. Let’s just say, it’s a world I have so much reverence for because it was such an important part of my life.”
Star Wars has been so popular for so long that anyone to take the reins on a new project is almost certainly a fan, something that’s true of Patty Jenkins, Taika Waititi and Kevin Feige, all of whom are overseeing a new feature. We can now possibly add Zhao to that list, and if Eternals marks a seamless transition to intergalactic adventures on the broadest possible canvas, then she might be the next MCU alumni to take the plunge and head to a galaxy far, far away.