Taika Waititi Updates Fans On His 'Star Wars' Project

Taikia Waititi and The Empire Strikes Back poster

Over the last couple of years, Taika Waititi has become the darling of not only the genre world but Hollywood overall. Starting with his Oscar nomination for the film JoJo Rabbit and then his time spent working the Marvel Cinematic Universe by directing Thor: Ragnarok and this year's Thor: Love and Thunder then his turn as Blackbeard the Pirate in Our Flag Means Death it seems that anything he touches turns to gold. During season 1 of The Mandalorian Taika directed the season finale and voiced the IG assassin droid who despite being a robot still managed to give a heartfelt performance. It was during this stint that Disney and Lucasfilm decided to give Taika a shot at his own Star Wars property much to great fanfare from the Star Wars community. But since the announcement mystery, like most Star Wars projects, has surrounded the project.

In a post The Rise of Skywalker world, Star Wars has spent most of its time on world-building through the Disney+ platform with their existing products and known timelines. The only two clear cinematic releases we are expected over the next couple of years are the on-again, off-again, Patty Jenkins movie, Rogue Squadron, and Taika’s unknown project. This past Star Wars Celebration in early June it was announced that Rogue Squadron would be swapping release dates with Taika’s project and be out in 2023. But what can we expect from Taika Waititi?  This past weekend, speaking with ScreenRant, he let gave fans an update.

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Taika tells us he is taking his time on creating something that keeps the feel of Star Wars without being forced.

That's yet to be seen. I don't know. I'm still writing. I'm still coming up with the ideas and storylining it and just wanted to make sure that it feels like a Star Wars film.

Because, I could say, "Oh yeah, we'll just write any old thing and set in space and then put Star Wars on the front." But it wouldn't be a Star Wars film without certain elements and a certain treatment, so I've just got to make sure that it stays within that wheelhouse.

Star Wars movies collage

What could a Taika Waititi Star Wars film look like?  I think looking at his time in the MCU is a great starting point. He has made some of what many fans will call the best in the series with the Thor movies. They are fun, humorous, and visually stunning films that could play really well into the Star Wars universe. The world sometimes doesn’t lend itself to comedy but we know that there have been some successes when we do dip our toe into that world, look no further than Family Guy’s Blue Harvest, early YouTube favourite Troops, or even any Robot Chicken parody. It certainly would be fun to see a movie set in the Star Wars universe but maybe it takes on another Waititi property What We Do In The Shadows which was a documentary-style comedy that focused on a group of three vampires living in New Zealand and later a successful FX series with the same name and shared universe. Maybe a workplace setting of the staff and crew of one of the Death Stars? Or maybe a film about a group of Imperials working in the Outer Rims?

While fan reaction to the Sequel Trilogy has been mixed, it would be a nice change of pace to move to some more individual stories within the galaxy even if it doesn’t involve the Skywalkers. This isn’t to say that we can’t go back to the well as given where we left off at the end of The Rise of Skywalker many of the characters are still young and discovering themselves and their new lot in life given the fall of the Final Order. Maybe some further adventures of Rey trying to restart the Jedi Order or maybe Finn and Poe trying to clean up the last of the Final Order? This last idea could work if you follow the formula laid out by Our Flag Means Death.  Regardless of where he takes this film, it is truly a great time to be a Star Wars fan!

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