Taika Waititi says his Star Wars movie feels “very me”
Waititi, who co-stars in the upcoming Free Guy, says it's still very early days on his next trip to the Star Wars universe
Film News Star Wars
The “Taika Waititi Star Wars movie” has been one of those concepts floating around the pop culture ecosystem for a few years now, a ball of hypothetical potential that might or might not end up ever actually paying off into a real, viewable film. It started way back when (i.e., 2017), when LucasFilm’s Kathleen Kennedy voiced her hope for the Hunt For The Wilderpeople director to lend his talents to that galaxy so long ago and far away. It’s evolved since then, though, through Waititi’s increasingly strong connections to Disney through his Thor movies (and now his co-starring role in Free Guy), and his direction, and voice-acting appearances in, actual Star Wars project The Mandalorian. But while all of those signs point to the increasing likelihood that Taika Waititi might make a Star Wars movie at some point, the fact remains that very little actual evidence of the film has ever seen the light of day.
All of which brings us to a Wired interview Waititi gave this week, pegged to Free Guy, in which he confirmed that…Well, yeah, not much has actually happened on this whole “Star Wars movie” thing. “It’s still in the ‘EXT. SPACE’ stage,” he joked in the interview, i.e., still very much a blank page where a screenplay might someday go. That being said, Waititi did assert that “We’ve got a story. I’m really excited by it because it feels very me.”
Which is an interesting thing to hear, given that Star Wars, as a film franchise, is still recovering from a few previous projects where distinctive creators attempted to fit their styles to the existing franchise, most notably with the eventual firing of Phil Lord and Chris Miller from Solo: A Star Wars Story. Disney has been at least somewhat willing to accommodate more distinctive voices in its various Star Wars side projects—we’re still genuinely psyched for that upcoming anime anthology—but less so when it comes to the films.
Meanwhile, it’s not like Waititi is hurting for work: He’s already finished filming on the upcoming Thor: Love And Thunder, and is still committed to trying to get that live-action Akira movie off the ground.
51 Comments
Just make it a movie of Jar Jar, Ewoks, Porgs and what not. Watch the box office explode.
JoJoD2, a coming of age tale of a newly built droid and his imaginary friend, Emporer Palpatine
Everybody here would watch the shit outta that.
“There’s only one thing to do.”“Right.”“Negotiate.” “Blow up Alderaan and blame the Rebel Alliance … or negotiate.”
Let’s see. We’ve got the Patty Jenkins film coming. We’ve got this Taika Waititi film coming. We’ve allegedly still got that Rian Johnson trilogy coming. We’ve reportedly got a J.D. Dillard movie coming. We might have a Kevin Feige movie coming. Someone is allegedly writing an Old Republic movie. That’s a lot of irons in the fire. I’ll be amazed to see half of them make it to the theater.
Disney execs are reading this and realizing they should probably hedge their bets with a few more Star Wars films.
Disney is banking on alternating Star Wars and Avatar movies in December for about 8 years starting with Avatar Duex in 2022 so they’re definitely getting one out there for 2023, I’d put money on that Patty Jenkins Rogue Squadron is happening. She made a video of her walking towards an X-Wing and everything!
Unless Feige is directing, it’s possible he could collaborate with one of those directors.
Disney giving out Star Wars movies like Oprah gives out cars.
you know that only happened once a long, long time ago, right?
“We’ve allegedly still got that Rian Johnson trilogy coming.”Ah, yes. The “trilogy” that was announced four years ago in which we have not received any updates on casting, shooting or story and which wasn’t included at Disney Investor’s Day at Disney Investor’s Day. Yes, that one.
Yeah, how come he isn’t directing that one while he’s currently working on another film?
LOL I think all you needed to write here was “The Last Jedi” as the most succinct and up-to-date status of his “trilogy.” I’ll be floored if he does anything Star Wars-related ever again.
I hear Knives Out 3 is going to be an all Wookie Cast.
We’ve allegedly still got that Rian Johnson trilogy coming.
Do we? I can’t remember seeing anything official, but there’s been talk that its been killed.
Well, if they want the Star Wars release schedule to be anything like Marvel, or even Pixar for that matter, they need to be working on at least that many properties at a time.
The Waititi one I have high hopes for, that is, if he’s at the very least involved in the writing of the script. I think he can write an excellent Star Wars movie. And he can probably do a fine job of directing it as well.Rogue One did have the style, but the writing was doodoo and the story uninspired. Solo had its moments but it didn’t really convince me. Let’s not even talk about the sequels.So far the only thing out of the Disney Star Wars era that in my opinion really got everything right was – surprise – The Mandalorian.
I’m still kinda pissed that they gave X-Wing to Patty Jenkins. No offense to her, but I have a bad feeling she won’t really do justice to the property.It ought to Top Gun in space, and all the stuff I’m hearing feels like she doesn’t get that.
Given the propaganda bent of Top Gun, I’d be wary of a Star Wars project that cites it as an influence. The Empire was originally based on the US, after all.Then again, the original cribbed from Dambusters and Triumph of the Will, so maybe it’ll be fine.
X-Wing? Is that Rogue Squadron, w/ Wedge front and center? Because that was a lot deeper than homo-erotic war-porn in the books in the old cannon.If the Rogue Squadron got presented like Top Gun, I think I might swear off new Star Wars forever.
You said it better than I did, I should have scrolled down.
The big question is will it really be a Taika Waititi film, the same way Marvel allowed Thor: Ragnarock and presumably Thor: Love & Thunder to be Taika Waititi films? Or will Star Wars smother it in the crib like Lord & Miller, Josh Trank, Gareth Edwards, etc?
Maybe if they have zero plan or vision for it, it will just work out.
Trank they dodged a bullet, Lord & Miller still directed about 50% of Solo (the mud pit scene where Han and Chewie first meet is 100% them) and cast everyone except Howard recasting for Vos (cuz they couldn’t get the original actor), Edwards still is credited as the Rogue One director and certainly doesn’t seem particularly bitter about how Rogue One turned out. Rian Johnston definitely made Last Jedi the way he wanted to. Ditto Abrams. Favreau and Filoni are doing what they want on Mandalorian. It’s really just those Game of Thrones guys who bailed and that’s cuz they wanted to make Netflix.
Even Thor:Ragnarok was caked down with the mill-stone that is the MCU
I think Lord and Miller got their hands slapped because they were messing with a known property. Someone working from scratch will have a lot more leeway, I’m a guessin’. There’s room for a funny Star Wars movie. But a funny, Lego movie-esque Han Solo movie wasn’t what Disney wanted. Apparently.
I always thought it was that Miller and Lord didn’t jive with the guy playing Han and that was a big reason they left. Maybe I made that up but it also makes sense to me because he is personality-less and talentless, and neither of those descriptors can be ascribed to Lord and Miller movies
Re: the firing of Lord and Miller on the Solo movie: What I remember reading in several articles at the time was that Lawrence Kasdan (responsible for writing several Star Wars films going all the way back to Empire) really clashed with Lord and Miller’s comedic, improvisational style where they would at times allow things to go off script, where Kasdan is an old-school screenwriter type that likes to stick to the script, and that caused a major clash. Producer Kathleen Kennedy sided with Kasdan on this, and that was basically the end of Lord and Miller on that movie.
Yeah, that’s basically what I heard. It was turning into a screwball comedy and although they wanted it to be humorous, not screwball.Which…is not Lord and Miller’s fault. It was such a weird choice to begin with; Lord and Miller can do more than one thing but you kind of know what you’re getting with them. They gave them “Lord and Miller” and then got fired. It’s almost like Kennedy said “Who’s the hottest writing team out there right now?” and someone in the back said “Lord and Miller” and she said “WE NEED TO GET THEM” knowing zero about them.That’s the story I’ve made up in my head because otherwise, she’s an idiot. And I don’t think she’s an idiot.
I think, if they hadn’t completely tanked the transition with the second Skywalker trilogy, they’d have a lot more flexibility, but they did.Now, they’ll just throw spaghetti at the wall.It’ll take a long time of success before I waste my time in a theater on another SW film again, and it’s also degraded my expectation of any other property Disney manages beyond re-made fairy tales.
Heh heh. Waitit.
nowhere to go but up
Disney has been at least somewhat willing to accommodate more distinctive voices in its various Star Wars side projects—we’re still genuinely psyched for that upcoming anime anthology—but less so when it comes to the films.
I totally get the apprehension, but with The Skywalker Saga over and done, there’s no reason to assume what Star Wars was is always what it will be.
They’re not shackled to a pre-existing narrative anymore, they can do whatever the fuck they want, and absolutely should.
Disney has been doing “whatever they want” to Star Wars since 2014. It’s been a disaster.
Not financially, which is all that really matters to them.
Holy shit! He’s making a Jaxxon movie!https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Jaxxon_T._Tumperakki
Second week in a row I get to share a link to this (sadly, unfinished) comic:https://www.theforce.net/humor/jaxxon/jaxxon-01.asp
While I loved Thor Ragnarok, there was bathos fatigue by the end (Banner flopping on the ground in the final fight was predictable in a movie that subverted as many action scenes as Ragnarok did, and more importantly you’re allowed to make us feel even a little sad about Asgard being destroyed without Korg undercutting it with a joke) and I hope he can find a better balance in future franchise work in general.I’m all about Star Wars being fun, but self-aware snark is the last thing it needs.
The joke after Ragnarok blew up really bothered me. You can let an emotional moment land, Taika! The Banner moment too. It was a pretty big deal that Banner didn’t know if he could transform back again.
Yeah Taika is usually so good with letting the emotional moments land, and after everything Thor has been through in the last several movies I hope he really digs in for Love and Thunder.
In a movie I love the hell out of, that was my one complaint. Even worse, he did it twice in a matter of minutes (the one about Asgard exploding, then right after with “Oh Miek, you’re alive!”). Both times were Korg lines; I wonder if he’s got a blind spot to letting himself do that sort of thing? /shrug
This is why he’s a bad fit for Star Wars, imo. It’s going to feel all Whedonized like the Sequel Trilogy, when the lesson they should be taking is that the Mandalorian won by playing it as straight Star Wars. Back to the roots. It doesn’t really feel very Favreau, it feels very Star Wars. Anyway, I’m sure they’ll keep doing their punch-ups to ensure it fits their extremely stale house style tone.
I think he can do a good job with Star Wars (his Mando episodes are great), I just hope he does.
I do love his movies, but there’s something unbearably smug about him. And it comes across in these kinds of moments. Like he needs to have his joke. I dunno – could be jealously I guess.
“One thing that happens when you become a Sith, is you become very sexy.”
“I go for a look which I call, ‘Darth but delicious’”
I hope he gets to make a Star Wars his way. In all the movies of the Disney era there’s a moment where the studio is clearly put the brakes on, and a Waititi film could suffer the most from that kind of interference.
So far so good….
It’s interesting Lucasfilm will allow Taika to make “his” type of film but wouldn’t allow Lord & Miller to do their own for Solo.Guess when it doesn’t involve the original characters, Lucasfilm doesn’t give a shit.
I’ll admit it. I would watch a C3PO/Chewbacca Bollywood-style dance off.
How many times has a rumour of a hot coming up director getting a Star Wars (maybe) has it been now?
Weren’t the directors of Game of Thrones getting a Star Wars at one point. Even Quentin Tarantino had a not-real Star Trek film.