Star Wars Episode 7 Director Rumors: X-Men's Matthew Vaughn in Talks to Direct Says Collider

Star Wars Episode 7 is still three years away, but the rumors keep on coming and the latest revolves around the film's director.

One would imagine that a writer would be the first to be assigned, but based on the rumor, it seems that Disney may be looking for a writer-director to take charge of the beloved franchise. Collider.com is stating that an anonymous source has mentioned the name of Matthew Vaughn as the director for the upcoming Star Wars film.

Vaughn is known for his work on Stardust, Kick-Ass, and the recent X-men reboot. He was hired to direct the sequel of the X-men films, but suddenly dropped out and was replaced by Bryan Singer. Collider claims that a lot of mystery surrounds Vaughn's leaving the X-men franchise, as he would have been in a prime position to exercise more creative control. 20^th Century Fox chairman Tom Rothman was known to create problems with directors, but he was slated to step down and his departure would have created more freedom for Vaughn in directing the X-men films. Collider states that if he were offered the Star Wars film, then it would only be logical for him to drop the X-men films. More telling is the fact that Vaughn wrote the script for the second X-Men film and would not have dropped out if not for an estrangement with a studio or a proposition so good that it would been impossible to turn down.

Vaughn has also written most of his films and has garnered strong critical receptions for all of them. His first feature Layercake gained an 81 percent approval rating from 133 reviews on aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. His second film Stardust obtained a 76 percent approval from 186 reviews and Kick-Ass was approved by 76 percent of 235 critics. The latest X-Men film was his best yet with an 87 percent approval from 231 critics.

Vaughn is currently working on Kick-Ass 2 which will hit theaters in 2013 release. The timing seems perfect if he were chosen to direct Star Wars as he would have all of 2014 to write and direct the film.