Taika Waititi’s been on an acting roll lately, from reprising Korg alongside Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool to briefly popping up in the recently-released The Suicide Squad, and soon we’ll see him in Free Guy. But Waititi is a filmmaker first and foremost, and among the projects he’s slated to helm in the coming years is his own Star Wars movie. We learned that the Thor: Ragnarok director would be jumping into a galaxy far, far away back in May 2020, and Waititi has provided an update on how things are coming along for this particular professional endeavor.
Last December, Taika Waititi joked about how as a longtime Star Wars fan, he was angry that he’d been hired to “ruin” the franchise. But seriously, what’s the status of his Star Wars movie? Here’s what Waititi told Wired about its status:
It’s still in the ‘EXT. SPACE’ stage (laughs). But we’ve got a story. I’m really excited by it because it feels very me.
Hey, you can’t make a movie without writing a story first, so even though it’s still early in the creative process for this Star Wars movie, it’s good to hear that Taika Waititi is pleased with what he’s come up with so far. It’s also important to remember that Waititi is multitasking on the filmmaking front, as Thor: Love and Thunder is in the post-production phase after wrapping filming at the beginning of June. So while Waititi now has extra time to focus on Star Wars, he’s also still spending time putting the finishing pieces together on the highly-anticipated Marvel Cinematic Universe movie.
In keeping with tradition, Disney and Lucasfilm are keeping details about Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie under proverbial lock and key at this stage of the game. Other than him sitting in the director’s chair, all we know about the project is that he’s co-writing the script with 1917’s Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Waititi already has Star Wars experience under his belt thanks to his time on Disney+’s The Mandalorian, having voiced the bounty hunter droid IG-11 and directed the Season 1 finale, “Chapter 8: Redemption.”
Of course, then there’s the question of when Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie will come out. Currently the only cinematic Star Wars story on the calendar is Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron, which is scheduled for December 22, 2023. But with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige producing a Star Wars movie that Loki’s Michael Waldron is writing, as well as Sleight’s J.D. Dillard and Luke Cage’s Matt Owens developing their own Star Wars movie, it’s hard to say where Waititi’s project ranks on the list of priorities. Between that and Waititi still being attached to a Flash Gordon movie (which will now be live-action rather than animated), it may be a while before his contribution to the Star Wars film series arrives.
Regardless, once more concrete details about Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie come trickling in, we’ll let you now. For now, you can see Waititi playing video game publisher Antwan in Free Guy starting this Friday, August 13, and Thor: Love and Thunder will storm into theaters on May 6, 2022.
