Initially, Waititi was supposed to direct a film written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917), before Tony McNamara (The Favourite) also joined the project. Since then, things had barely moved forward until the news announced last January, when Kathleen Kennedy left Lucasfilm.
Gag video
It was then learned that a screenplay had been completed, described as “hilarious and great.” Which, for a Star Wars, is still not exactly the first quality one looks for. For his part, Waititi had said at the Sundance Film Festival that he hoped to “bring back a bit of the playful spirit of the original films.” From there to turning the saga into a galactic joke factory, there is still a step we would rather not see taken.
Taika Waititi aka Mister Freeze
Since then, the project has hardly advanced, while Waititi has been multiplying other films in development. Asked by Inverse on the occasion of promoting his next feature film, Klara and the Sun, the director confirmed that his Star Wars was now on ice: “I hate to have to tell you this, but we [Waititi and McNamara] are indeed going to put the project on hold. We’re working on something else together... It’s really on ice. I’ve got about four other films I’m trying to get made.”
Asked about the nature of this other project, Waititi turned to his publicist to see whether he could say any more. The blunt answer: “If you have to ask the question, then the answer is no.” The filmmaker then joked: “Well, you have your answer. I don’t even know how to present it otherwise, or how to stay vague enough.”
Even so, Waititi refuses to consider his Star Wars definitively buried: “Even ice ages eventually come to an end. Who knows?”
What are Taika Waititi’s other projects before Star Wars?
What if, more simply, Disney had ended up realizing that the project wasn’t very good, without wanting to upset the director of Thor: Love and Thunder, a top-tier Marvel turkey? An elegant way to sweep everything under the rug while waiting for everyone to move on to something else. A little lucidity in this garden of turkeys would ultimately do no harm.
Among Waititi’s other projects are a new adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, We’re Wolves, a film adaptation of the famous comic book The Incal, as well as an adaptation of the satirical novel Barn 8.
After particularly noteworthy beginnings praised by critics, the career of the (overrated?) filmmaker has seriously lost some of its luster. Thor: Love and Thunder and Next Goal Wins left a bitter taste, while Klara and the Sun, freshly panned at its festival screening, is set for theatrical release on October 23.