Filmmaker Taika Waititi entirely revived interested in Chris Hemsworth’s Thor with 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, resulting in Lucasfilm announcing in 2020 that Waititi was set to develop a movie for the Star Wars franchise. More than four years later, there have been no updates on the project, and while Waititi personally addressed the status of the project in a recent interview, his comments fail to offer any clarity on whether the project could ever come to life. Essentially, Waititi confirmed that the project wasn’t necessarily “dead,” as he’s had projects undergo substantial delays, only for the opportunity to make those projects present themselves.
“What was ever alive? What is death? You know, death is just a new opportunity. More life to grow and flourish,” Waititi joked to The Playlist about if his Star Wars project was still alive. “Everything’s always in development. My advice for any filmmaker is, ‘Just say yes to everything.’ Because, you know, things come and go. And you never know what stage things are. And I’ve been attached to things that have disappeared for three years and then bubbled back up. I’m like, ‘Oh, I thought that thing was dead. Now I’ve got to go do that again.”
In this sense, it seems like Waititi was offered an opportunity to develop a Star Wars movie, he said yes, and that project hasn’t become his or Lucasfilm’s priority. Since the project’s announcement, Waititi developed the movies Thor: Love and Thunder and Next Goal Wins, while also working on the TV series Our Flag Means Death and Time Bandits. He did stay involved with Star Wars in a different capacity, as he voiced the droid IG-11 in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian.
[RELATED: Star Wars: Taika Waititi Compares His Movie to Original Trilogy Sequels]
Lucasfilm, on the other hand, hasn’t been quite as prolific when it comes to big-screen output. The last Star Wars movie to be released was 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but dating back to 2017, the studio has established a trend announcing movies and generating excitement among fans, only for those announced projects to be delayed indefinitely or outright scrapped. Rian Johnson being announced as developing a trilogy of new films was the start of the trend, as both he and Lucasfilm continue to claim it’s all a matter of scheduling before that trilogy moves forward, but he is far from alone.
The current tally of Star Wars films that have been announced or confirmed yet have not earned substantial production updates include ones being made by filmmakers Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, James Mangold, Shawn Levy, Donald and Stephen Glover, Patty Jenkins, and Dave Filoni. Simon Kinberg is also reportedly developing a trilogy of films, while Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian & Grogu movie started production earlier this year.
Given that some filmmakers have outright admitted to their Star Wars projects being cancelled, Waititi not outright saying the project was over is at least something that can give fans some optimism.
Stay tuned for updates on Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie.
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