Leonardo DiCaprio Credits an Iconic Star Wars Character with Inspiring His Grittiest Role Yet

Leonardo DiCaprio teaming up with Paul Thomas Anderson was always going to be interesting. What I did not have on my bingo card: Leo pulling style cues from a Star Wars bounty hunter. But here we are, and it actually makes sense in context.

The role, the shades, and yes, the Boba Fett thing

In Anderson's One Battle After Another, DiCaprio plays a paranoid ex-revolutionary who cannot outrun his past. The character's look is anchored by some very deliberate sunglasses, and DiCaprio said he based part of that vibe on Boba Fett. He mentioned it to USA TODAY in a clip shared on X, and once you hear it, you cannot unsee it. It's a fun, unexpected touch for a PTA movie, and it works.

PTA and DiCaprio finally link up

This is the first time Anderson and DiCaprio have actually worked together after Leo famously passed on Boogie Nights years ago. By all accounts, they had a good time making this one, and Anderson made it clear he values DiCaprio's instincts. In a Rolling Stone interview, he called Leo a strong creative partner who likes to float ideas with a little self-deprecation first.

"Leo's a good collaborator, but he has this annoying thing that he does where he says, 'Listen, I'm not a writer, but...'. It's usually a setup for, 'I have some other ideas about everything else' - and they're good ideas!"

Translation: he says he is not a writer, then he pitches writing and everything else anyway, and the notes are actually useful. Directors love that, even if they pretend not to.

The movie that split the room

One Battle After Another might be the most divisive film Anderson has made. It has the usual PTA fingerprints: knotty relationships, sharp irony, a dark sense of humor, characters who feel slightly off-axis. Some viewers locked into it. Others bounced right off.

Box office-wise, it started slow and built steadier than you might expect. It opened on September 26, 2025, with a $22.4 million domestic weekend, then climbed to $196 million by the end of its theatrical run (per Box Office Mojo). Meanwhile, early audience reactions were rough. A lot of people called it too long and emotionally distant, and one Metacritic commenter even singled out a major performance as bad before suggesting the writing was the real culprit. That kind of feedback fed the 'not a casual watch' reputation pretty fast.

Here is the flip side: that sarcasm, the bleak humor, the metaphor-on-metaphor worldview? It all hits pretty hard right now. If you vibe with Anderson's frequency, it is very easy to see why this one has stuck for some folks.

• Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
• Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall
• Release date: September 26, 2025
• IMDb rating: 8.2/10
• Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
• Box office: $196 million worldwide; $22.4 million domestic opening weekend
• Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
• Where to watch: Amazon

Bottom line: polarizing? Absolutely. But the craft is undeniable, DiCaprio is locked-in, and the Boba Fett-inspired look is a genuinely clever character detail. If you bounced off it, I get it. If you loved it, I also get it. Where did you land?