New Zealand-born writer, director, actor — and all-around entertainer — Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit, What We Do in the Shadows, Thor: Ragnarok, Thor: Love and Thunder) has confirmed that he is making progress on his upcoming Star Wars movie.
Previously, Waititi’s film was delayed when Lucasfilm pushed the release dates of all of the movies on its upcoming live-action slate. We won’t see a feature-length Star Wars movie until Patty Jenkins’s Star Wars: Rogue Squadron hits theaters in December 2023.
Waititi’s project is expected to take the 2025 slot. Last year, the director confirmed that he had begun writing the script and scouting filming locations, specifically in Scotland, but now he has told Wired UK more about how far along the movie actually is:
“It’s still in the ‘EXT. SPACE’ stage. But we’ve got a story. I’m really excited by it because it feels very me. I tend to go down that little sincerity alleyway in my films. I like to fool the viewer into thinking ‘ha it’s this’ and then them going, ‘Damn it, you made me feel something!’”
Although few details about Waititi’s Star Wars movie have been confirmed, astute fans previously picked up on the fact that Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy may have actually leaked the film’s storyline — thanks to the graphics on the screen behind her — during the 2020 Disney Investor Day event.
At one point, a diamond-shaped ship [above] appeared, seemingly hurtling toward an unknown planet. At the time, one article noted:
The floating pyramid-shaped structure bears a resemblance to Tho Yor, a great pyramidal ship and weapon that housed the Force-sensitive predecessors to the Jedi during the “First Migration.” Tho Yor is featured prominently in Dawn of the Jedi, a sub-series within the Star Wars franchise that encompasses both a 2012-2014 comic book series and a 2013 novel by Tim Lebbon. While Kennedy didn’t acknowledge whether the strange structure behind her was in fact Tho Yor, that hasn’t stopped fans from connecting the dots themselves….
…What makes this theory extra interesting is that Dawn of the Jedi is a “non-canon” story, as part of the pre-Disney “Legends” family of extended universe stories. Lucasfilm has made it clear that material from Legends isn’t off-limits. (The inclusion of Thrawn in new, recent stories is proof that Legends can and will be recycled.) Since Taika Waititi can theoretically and legally adapt Dawn of the Jedi, fans suspect his movie is in fact his own take on Dawn of the Jedi.
For now, Star Wars and Marvel fans can enjoy Oscar Award-winning Waititi as Antonie in 20th Century Studios’ Free Guy starring Ryan Reynolds this Friday.
Are you looking forward to director Taika Waititi trying his hand at a Star Wars movie?
Credit: 20th Century Fox
