Ben Affleck hints he almost directed a Star Wars movie

Before he was growling his way through Batman v Superman, Ben Affleck nearly directed Star Wars: The Force Awakens. At least, he certainly implied as much during a recent appearance on the new HBO show Any Given Wednesday hosted by Bill Simmons.

Affleck doesn’t outright say Disney courted the actor for the directing gig, but he doesn’t deny it either. When Simmons asks Affleck to comment, the actor offers up a non-denial.

Well, it wouldn’t be polite to talk about the jobs you turn down, but I had a lot of offers. It’s like, forks in the road that are, like, legitimate different paths. Boy, my life’s going to be really different if I go this way, or do Batman, or I do this other… iconic thing.

Based on those comments, it’s pretty easy to see why people believe the actor may have been the one to reboot Star Wars. Affleck has proven to be a terrific director with movies such as Gone Baby Gone, The Town and Argo. However, it would be strange to see him jump into the Star Wars universe because of how different the genre is compared to his previous work.

Instead, J.J. Abrams was handed the reins and we got what turned out to be a fun Star Wars movie with some great new characters. Even though we’ll probably never see a Star Wars movie directed by Affleck, we can at least imagine what it would have been like. Lots of Boston accents and lots of Patriots jerseys.