During the 1985 Marin County, California production of Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, veteran actor Wilford Brimley reportedly did not get along with the film’s directing team, brothers Ken and Jim Wheat. The friction became serious enough that Joe Johnston—already serving as the production designer and second-unit director, and a major creative figure within George Lucas’s production circle—directed Brimley’s scenes instead of the Wheats. The available production account does not identify the precise cause of the disagreement or describe a public blowup, so the episode is best understood as a documented behind-the-scenes clash rather than a fully chronicled Hollywood feud. It nonetheless illustrates the unusual power dynamics of a Lucasfilm television production: although the Wheat brothers were the credited directors, responsibilities could be shifted to a senior member of the creative crew when relations with a principal actor broke down.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1980s
Wilford Brimley’s Clash with the Ewok Adventure Directors Forced Joe Johnston to Take Over His Scenes
Wilford Brimley / Ewoks: The Battle for Endor / 1980s
During the 1985 Marin County, California production of Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, veteran actor Wilford Brimley reportedly did not get along with the film’s directing team, brothers Ken and Jim Wheat. The friction became serious enough that Joe Johnston—already serving as the production designer and second-unit director, and a major creative figure within George Lucas’s production circle—directed Brimley’s scenes instead of the Wheats. The available production account does not identify the precise cause of the disagreement or describe a public blowup, so the episode is best understood as a documented behind-the-scenes clash rather than a fully chronicled Hollywood feud. It nonetheless illustrates the unusual power dynamics of a Lucasfilm television production: although the Wheat brothers were the credited directors, responsibilities could be shifted to a senior member of the creative crew when relations with a principal actor broke down.
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