Thunderbolts Director Talks About Playing In The MCU & Star Wars Sandboxes

Director Jake Schreier discusses directing projects in both the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Thunderbolts and Star Wars with Skeleton Crew. While details about both projects have been kept under wraps, Thunderbolts will follow a team of former villains and antiheroes, while Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is focused on a group of kids trying to get home with the help of a Jedi played by Jude Law. Although the projects are vastly different, they both mark a new story for each franchise, with Thunderbolts not focusing on atypical heroes, and Skeleton Crew expected to tell a coming-of-age story in the style of 1980s Amblin movies.

During an exclusive interview with Screen Rant about Beef and Thunderbolts, Schreier discusses working on two major franchises in the form of Star Wars and the MCU. The Emmy-nominated director shares what it’s like to move into these larger franchises after working on smaller projects, while also breaking down what is exciting about these sandboxes from a director’s perspective. Check out Schreier’s full quote now:

Jake Schreier: The thing you’re struck by is just, there’s this incredible teams upon teams of artists that love this stuff, and all have such different perspectives and different ideas to bring to it. I think when you’re coming from smaller projects you really have to kind of pick an idea and stick to it and make it work. What’s so exciting about these worlds is you get to explore a little bit more, and you get to maybe be wrong and step back, or adjust things or take a different perspective on what something should look like, or what world do you want to go into. That’s just such a luxury to have, and to see how many people have so many different ideas to it, and when they bring that kind of love for those worlds. If you can harness that. That’s just been very, very fun over the last year or so.

Editor’s Note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, and the projects covered here would not exist without the labor of the writers and actors in both unions.

Part of what has helped both Star Wars and the MCU thrive is that many of the creators are fans themselves. Whether fans of the original trilogy with Star Wars or Marvel Comics, many writers, producers, directors, and actors grew up loving these worlds. Both franchises draw in wildly talented artists at every level, which has helped them grow and develop into some of the most popular franchises in the world.

This love, be it from childhood or more recently, translates into passion and creativity behind the scenes and in front of the camera. Star Wars first debuted with A New Hope in 1977 and has grown into a massive interconnected universe with novels, comics, animated and live-action shows, and, of course, the movies. While the MCU is significantly younger, it has a huge foothold in the superhero genre, with the diversity of stories also having helped each franchise grow.

Marvel and Star Wars began exploring live-action shows with Disney+, opening the door for shows like The Mandalorian, Andor, Ms. Marvel, and WandaVision, all of which play in corners of the MCU and Star Wars that hadn’t been fully explored before. Schreier himself is able to work on Thunderbolts, which focuses on a team of anti-heroes and villains, as well as Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, which is a coming-of-age story centered around kids. Part of what helps both Star Wars and the MCU thrive is the fact that the people actually creating and bringing these stories to life are just as invested as the fans who love them.

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