The Big Picture

Josh Gad has a theory that Star Wars and Oreo cookies have always been deeply intertwined.
Gad, a fan of Star Wars villains, particularly loves Sidious, Kylo, and Plagueis for their dark sides.
Gad says he would love to return to the Star Wars galaxy if given the chance.

When you think of Star Wars, what’s the first thing to come to mind? Is it characters like Yoda and Darth Vader? Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and Obi-Wan’s (Ewan McGregor) fateful duel on Mustafar that we can quote word for word? Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) teaming up in Snoke’s (Andy Serkis) throne room, thus forever altering my brain chemistry? If you’re Josh Gad, then the first thing you think of is…OREO cookies. The actor shared a video on his Instagram today, celebrating the iconic cookie’s Star Wars collaboration, and in honor of that event, I got the chance to sit down and chat with Gad about all things Star Wars, OREO, and of course, one of my favorite topics: Reylo.

But before we dove into any of that, I had to ask: I’d heard that Gad had a theory that Star Wars and OREO had always been connected, and I needed to know just what that theory was. Gad replied, “It’s not so much a theory as it is fact,” adding:

“So when you watch the
Star Wars
films, it becomes readily apparent that there’s not a lack of Oreo cookies represented in this universe, whether it’s the Galactic Senate, or whether it’s the Stormtrooper masks’ breathing apparatuses with little Oreo cookies in them, or whether it’s a ship you may know as the Millennium Falcon, but those of us in the know call it the Oreo Cookie Millennium Falcon.
You can’t have cookies without Star Wars and you can’t have
Star Wars
without cookies.
It’s a theory that I think I’ve diligently proven to be true. So, yeah, I look forward to other
Star Wars
sleuths going frame by frame and seeing what I’ve seen. But I’m confident that this is the intention of the filmmakers behind
Star Wars
.”

I might not see the vision the way Gad does, but one thing the two of us have in common is a love of Star Wars villains. As his OREO collaboration announcement video proved, Gad has an affinity for the Dark side — the mystery packs of OREOs come in either Light Side blue or Dark Side red, and feature cover art from Star Wars poster artist Greg Hildebrant — so I had to know who his favorite Dark Side characters were. He made his picks from all across the Star Wars timeline, saying:

“Man, that is a really good question. I guess it’s Sidious. I mean, you can’t spell “insidious” without Sidious, and I feel like that’s reason enough.
I also do love me some Kylo. He’s very temperamental, but I can relate.
Being stuck in space makes you moody — I wouldn’t tell my father, but it makes you moody. So, I relate probably the most to them. Plagueis. The guy lived forever or was gonna live forever until he didn’t. Until he was struck down by his disciple. There’s some good ones to pull from.”

Does Josh Gad Ship Reylo? You Bet He Does.

But OREOs aside, what is it the first thing that Gad thinks about when he thinks about Star Wars? He started by acknowledging the iconic score by John Williams was the first thing that came to mind, but in terms of imagery it was “the iconic scene of Han Solo descending into the carbonite freezer, and the exchange of “I love you/I know.” It just captures the essence of the romance, the love, the scope and the drama, and the good versus evil theme that is so instantaneously epic and exciting.”

Latching on to the idea of romance, of course I had to ask him about my personal favorite Star Wars romance, the one between Rey and Kylo Ren (tragically cut short, but my delusional hope springs eternal). While filming Murder on the Orient Express, Gad filmed a video with costars Daisy Ridley and Judi Dench, where Dench tried to get Star Wars spoilers out of Ridley on Gad’s behalf. Since one of the questions was “What’s the deal with Reylo?” I decided to ask Gad if he also ships the pair. The answer: he absolutely does.

“[Laughs] I ship them. I mean, look,
if you’re going to be at a place in your relationship where you have such a strong connection you can use the force to FaceTime each other, I’m rooting for you.
Like, it’s obviously meant to be. And she pulls him out of the darkness into the light. So yeah, I’m a post-Snoke-being-murdered-in-cold-blood Reylo fan.”

Josh Gad’s Chris Farley Biopic Is a “Very Personal” Project

Though we were mostly speaking to talk about Star Wars, I did get a chance to also ask Gad about the upcoming biopic about Chris Farley, which he is set to direct, and which Paul Walter Hauser as the legendary comedian. As someone with a background in sketch comedy, I was curious to learn anything he could share, and while he said he couldn’t tease much, he did share that the project was deeply personal to him, saying:

“I can tell you that it’s based on the incredible book written by Chris’s brother, Tom, and his partner, Tanner [Colby], called
The Chris Farley Show
. I can tell you what’s inspiring me and the writers and Paul, the brilliant Paul Walter Hauser, as we roll up our sleeves and start to map things out. There’s a joy and a legacy that Chris’s work has that is wholly unique. There are very few people that can universally make everyone laugh. Chris Farley was one of those individuals. So what I hope to capture is the essence of that in the same way that, I don’t know if you had a chance to ever watch Adam Sandler’s Chris Farley tribute song, [“Farley”], but it’s incredible, and it sort of, again, captures the essence of what made Chris a comedy hero to so, so many of us.
It’s gonna track his journey through thick and thin, oftentimes thick and oftentimes thin, and it’s going to do so in a way that makes people laugh and sometimes cry.
But we’re really excited. We’re at the beginning of it, but I think it’s gonna be really special.
For me, it was really important. I’ve wanted to direct for a while, but I knew that
I needed to do something that was very personal and a story about the struggle with weight, struggle with confidence, struggle with inner demons, and wanting to make people laugh
even if sometimes it’s at your own expense. Those things felt wholly familiar and recognizable, in part because I worshiped Chris Farley growing up. So, it’s sort of a full-circle project for me, and in a way, I see a lot of myself in it.”

Who Would Josh Gad Play in Star Wars? Plagueis, Perhaps?
Image via Oreo

Taking things back to Star Wars, I asked him the question every fan has pondered at least once: if he could play any character in the Galaxy Far, Far Away, who would it be? Of course, Gad has already appeared in Star Wars, voicing LT-319 in the Star Wars Rebels Season 3 episode “Double Agent Droid.” But if he were to go beyond that, what would he like to do?

The possibilities were endless. He joked about playing Jabba’s nephew Topher, or Rey’s secret twin brother. He wondered if there was space for him as some sort of tutor to Grogu:

“Maybe I’m like a tutor to baby Yoda. Maybe I’m teaching him just like what not to eat. He seems to eat a lot of garbage. And, you know, maybe I’m his dance instructor. I don’t know.”

But what about those Dark Siders he likes so much. Don’t worry, he’s got that covered too:

“Maybe we do a young Plagueis origin story. A prequel. You wouldn’t expect me to be the ultimate Sith Lord who’s then struck down eventually. I think that could be exciting.”

All joking aside, what it came down to, however, was his assertion that he “would honestly answer any call to be in Star Wars.”

You can watch my full conversation with Gad in the player above. The limited-edition Star Wars OREO’s will be available for preorder at oreo.com/StarWars beginning May 30, and will hit retailers across the U.S. on June 10 for a limited time. The complete Star Wars saga is streaming now on Disney+.

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