Taika Waititi's Star Wars Movie Is "On Ice" — But There's A Silver Lining
“It’s very iced.”
Taika Waititi gained a reputation for light-hearted, joyful, emotional epics with movies like Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Thor: Ragnarok, and Jojo Rabbit. But since then, his reputation has changed to being “booked and busy.” He’s directed episodes of TV, starred in two seasons of an HBO Max original series, co-created Reservation Dogs, and made the feel-good sports movie Next Goal Wins. He even surprised his wife by appearing on The Masked Singer.
Now, he’s releasing his latest movie, Klara and the Sun, an adaptation of the hit dystopian novel. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg: there are still multiple Taika Waititi projects in development, including a long-gestating Star Wars movie. Apparently, however, that project is back on hiatus — but it’s being replaced with something else.
Taika Waititi is already part of Star Wars through voice acting and directing The Mandalorian.
Fans have waited years for Waititi’s Star Wars movie to actually materialize. It’s been so long that even Waititi himself treats the slow process as a running joke, but the last we heard, things were actually moving as The Favourite and Poor Things screenwriter Tony McNamara took over scriptwriting duties so Waititi could focus on directing. Inverse spoke to Waititi about the current state of the project during a press junket for Klara and the Sun.
“I hate to break this to you, but we're going to actually put it on ice and we're working on a different thing together,” Waititi tells Inverse.
So while we may not get these two visionaries’ take on the Star Wars universe, we’ll at least see them work together on something. Unfortunately, that’s all the information we have. 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.”
Playwright and screenwriter Tony McNamara is working with Taika Waititi, but not in the Star Wars Universe anymore.
“It's very iced. I've got about four other movies I'm trying to do,” he says. This is true: he’s got a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie in the works, plus the What We Do In The Shadows sequel We’re Wolves, the graphic novel adaptation The Incal, and the adaptation of satirical novel Barn 8. That said, he doesn’t rule out returning to the Star Wars universe. “Ice ages do come to an end,” he teases. “Who knows?”
Waititi’s Star Wars movie has been on the bubble for years now, but this makes it seem like it’s officially not happening. But with him working on another project with McNamara, we won’t miss out on two of the most singular creative minds working today finally joining forces. It may not have lightsabers or Jedi, but it’s sure to be a great time at the movies.
