As part of the Star Wars Day festivities this year, Disney has confirmed that Taika Waititi is attached to helm a ‘Star Wars’ movie. It was previously revealed back in January that the studio was courting the filmmaker, but in February, Waititi deflected the idea, saying:
“Listen, what does approached even mean? I’ve seen ‘Star Wars’ and that is as far as it got.”
Of course, everyone knows that everyone involved in one of these major franchises acts coy and plays dumb when questioned. It looks as though negotiations have been completed and things are moving forward.
The screenplay will be penned by Krysty Wilson-Cairns (‘1917’), but no story details were announced.
Waititi already has a connection to the ‘Star Wars’ universe, having directed an episode of Disney+’s ‘The Mandalorian’ (“Chapter 8: Redemption”) and providing the voice of droid IG-11.
Waititi recently won his first Oscar for the screenplay for ‘Jojo Rabbit’, which received five other nominations. He is best known for reinvigorating the ‘Thor’ movie franchise with 2017’s crowd-pleasing ‘Thor: Ragnarok’. Waititi will return to direct the sequel, ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’, which is due to be released in theaters on February 11, 2022. He is also the co-creator of the FX series ‘What We Do In The Shadows’.
His next movie, the soccer-themed ‘Next Goal Wins’, has been completed, but doesn’t have a release date yet. He is also attached to a TV series based on the movie ‘Time Bandits’ for Apple TV+. While he had been tapped to reboot ‘Flash Gordon’ for 20th Century Fox, following the Disney buy-out of that studio, it is believed that ‘Flash Gordon’ has been scrapped, which should come as no surprise as it could be seen as direct competition to the ‘Star Wars’ franchise. Another project he was set to tackle, a live-action film adaptation of the anime ‘Akira’ for Warner Brothers, also looks to have stalled out after multiple delays.
Will Waititi’s ‘Star Wars’ film be free-standing or the kick-off to a new trilogy? That remains to be seen, but check back as more details arrive.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
