Filmmaker Taika Waititi recently said his long gestating Star Wars film has been “iced” as he begins crafting a new film instead. It was years ago now, when Waititi was at the height of his popularity with Jo Jo Rabbit, Thor: Ragnarok and directing an episode of The Mandalorian, that then Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy announced Waititi was writing and directing a Star Wars film. However, Waititi has dropped off big time since then, with Thor: Love and Thunder starting a trend of misses with audiences.
Officially his Star Wars film was still ‘in-development’ but realistically I have been saying for years we’d never see this film. Kennedy is gone and Dave Filoni is the new ‘creative’ boss at Lucasfilm and according to Waititi it sounds like his project is pretty much dead.
Waititi spoke with Inverse recently and was asked about his Star Wars project?
“I hate to break this to you, but we’re [screenwriter Tony McNamara] going to actually put it on ice and we’re working on a different thing together,” Waititi tells Inverse.
When pressed for more details, he asked his publicist if he could say any more and was told, “If you have to ask, the answer is no.”
“Well, there’s your answer,” Waititi says. “I don’t even know how to dress it up or make it even vague.”
“It’s very iced. I’ve got about four other movies I’m trying to do,” but he won’t rule out returning.
“Ice ages do come to an end,” he teases. “Who knows?”
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Ultimately this took so long, and Waititi has been so busy making other films, that you never felt his heart was fully in this one. Given recent news that Lucasfilm are going back to the well with Episodes X, XI, XII, it just sems like the environment where this might have worked and Waititi’s name would haave sold tickets, has passed.
I don’t honestly think we will ever see this film, Rian Johnson’s unwritten trilogy, James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi movie, or the Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy directed Rey Sequel. We’ll get Starfighter and then the next one I’m guessing we are in Episode X, which just means even more reason to demean the ending of the original Skywalker Saga.
What do you think? Given how unpopular Waititi is online these days I guess most folks are okay with this? Leave your thoughts below.
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