This morning, Lucasfilm announced that Martin Scorsese has officially joined the world of “Star Wars” after the filmmaker was spotted in the latest trailer for Jon Favreau’s “The Mandalorian & Grogu.”
In the trailer, Scorsese can be heard voicing the fry cook at the 21-second mark. Favreau made a cameo in Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street,” so this could just be him returning the favor. Regardless, Scorsese is set to lend his voice to an Ardennian fry cook — a multi-armed alien belonging to the same species Jon Favreau previously portrayed in “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
Scorsese may not be thought of as an actor, but he’s never been shy about stepping in front of the camera. Over the years, he’s made memorable appearances in his own films, including “Taxi Driver” and “The King of Comedy.” He’s also had small roles in Kurosawa’s “Dreams” and Julian Schnabel’s “In the Hands of Dante.” More recently, he played an exaggerated version of himself in HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and Apple TV+’s Hollywood satire “The Studio.”
I might be wrong here, but Scorsese has never been a vocal or outspoken Star Wars fan; his relationship with the franchise appears to be muted. If anything, his past comments on franchise cinema offer a clearer sense of where he stands on IP, as he has famously taken issue with the dominance of big franchise films in theaters.
Remember when Holland publicly stated, “maybe I’m done with Spider-Man”? Yeah, I’m convinced that was a negotiating strategy. He now has extraordinary leverage with Sony.