Is Wes Anderson directing a Star Wars film? AI trailer for The Galactic Menagerie explained

The director is known for his off-beat quirky comedies including The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and The French Dispatch, but could Wes Anderson have a Star Wars movie in the works? 

A trailer for The Galactic Menagerie, shared to YouTube on 28 April, is supposedly for a Wes Anderson Star Wars reboot. The film follows a ‘ragtag crew of unlikely heroes as they navigate the absurdity of the cosmos, challenge the empire and redefine what it means to be a rebel.’

The rebels plan to steal the emperor’s artefact, save the galaxy and hopefully find themselves along the way. The trailer promises the film will be ‘the most delightful offbeat Star Wars adventure yet’.

The trailer has been watched almost 300,000 times on YouTube and several people shared their love for it, with some questioning if it was a trailer for a real movie or just an internet joke.

Is Wes Anderson making a Star Wars film?

Unfortunately not, this is another piece of AI hijinks - YouTube channel Curious Refuge shared a trailer created by a movie buff using artificial intelligence software Midjourney for a Star Wars film directed by Wes Anderson. 

The trailer, for a film titled The Galactic Menagerie, is a reimagining of the first Star Wars film, in the style of a Wes Anderson movie. It features many of the director’s themes, including use of visual symmetry, pastel colours, head on camera angles, and a sardonic narration.

The trailer also listed the film’s cast, which featured several longtime Wes Anderson collaborators including Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Scarlett Johansson, Jeff Goldblum, Timothée Chalamet and Owen Wilson.

The synopsis for the trailer reads: “Welcome to the Galactic Menagerie, a whimsical and visually stunning fan-made fake trailer that reimagines the classic Star Wars universe through the eccentric lens of Wes Anderson. This enchanting mashup brings together iconic Star Wars characters with Anderson's trademark symmetrical compositions, pastel colour palettes, and quirky humour.”

Three more real Star Wars movies have been confirmed, although none of them will be directed by Anderson. The first of the three will follow Rey 15 years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, as she rebuilds the Jedi Order. It is due for release in December 2023, although it is rumoured that the release will be pushed back. 

How have fans reacted to the Wes Anderson AI trailer?

The trailer found a lot of love on YouTube, with many fans saying how much they want to see a real movie based off it. One wrote: “I want to see this so much more than any contemporary official Star Wars project.”

Another added: “I've seen a lot of these and this one is the most well done. perfect Darth Vadar reveal. Wow.”

But not everyone was impressed - taking to Twitter, one critic said: “An artificial intelligence will never be able to grasp the sincerity of the emotions, expression and humanity painted onto the screen by Wes Anderson. All ai is capable of is mocking how an image is structured. It has no comprehension of Mise-En-Scène. It does not feel.”

Is Wes Anderson making a new film?

Yes, Wes Anderson has a new film in the works. It’s not Star Wars but it does have a galactic theme - the upcoming movie is called Asteroid City, in which the itinerary of a Junior Stargazer convention is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.

Like most Anderson films, Asteroid City boasts an all star cast, including Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, and Margot Robbie. The film will be released in cinemas on 23 June 2023.