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Credit: Inside the MagicAs the Walt Disney Company and one of its biggest IPs, Star Wars, continue to navigate turbulent waters, one fan-favorite director could continue a troubling trend for Lucasfilm, threatening to divide an already-shattered fandom in the wake of the controversial Sequel Trilogy.
Related: Taika Waititi Gives ‘Star Wars’ Update
‘Star Wars’ Sequel Trilogy Controversy, Explained
It’s no secret that the harshest critics of Star Wars movies and TV shows tend to be, well, Star Wars fans. Still, it’s not exactly difficult to understand the origins of their very valid frustrations with Disney’s handling of the franchise ever since the mega-conglomerate media giant purchased Lucasfilm from creator George Lucas in 2012 for a record-breaking $4.05 billion.
Disney, to put it lightly, jumped the gun by releasing a slew of big-budget Star Wars films shortly after obtaining the property without any actual plans in place for a conclusive narrative, releasing Star Wars: Episode VI – The Force Awakens (2015), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017), Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), and Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019) back to back, to mixed results.
Related: After 45 Years, Cast Breaks Silence on ‘Star Wars’ Scandal
Although J.J. Abrams’s The Force Awakens proved to be a massive hit for Disney, raking in over $2 billion at the box office, Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi essentially destroyed everything its predecessor had set up, leading to a messy and rushed conclusion in Abrams’s The Rise of Skywalker. Meanwhile, Rogue One was warmly received by critics and fans, while Solo leaned, perhaps, too much into the nostalgia of George Lucas’ Original Trilogy, proving that there’s not much of a market for recast legacy characters.
So, with a fractured fanbase going at each other’s throats online, Disney decided to shift focus away from the Sequel Trilogy era and onto the unexplored post-Original Trilogy era, heading to Disney+ with the first live-action Star Wars show, The Mandalorian. The Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau-helmed series is credited with reviving interest in the dying franchise, though its ensuing TV entries, including The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi, didn’t land nearly as well with audiences.
Disney Announces Next “Phase” of ‘Star Wars’ Movies
Now, Star Wars is gearing up for its long-awaited return to theaters, with Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy announcing not one but three new movies set in the galaxy far, far away during April’s Star Wars Celebration Europe: Dave Filoni’s “Mando-Verse” crossover event, James Mangold’s mysterious Dawn of the Jedi project, and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Rey solo film, which will see the return of actress Daisy Ridley.
However, one movie, which has gotten somewhat lost in the endless stream of Star Wars projects that get announced but never actually see the light of day, didn’t get much of an update during Lucasfilm’s studio showcase — until now.
There have long been rumblings of Academy Award-winning director Taika Waititi’s unnamed Star Wars movie, which Lucasfilm announced but still has not received an official synopsis, timeline, or release date. For some time, it seemed like Waititi’s project was added to the list of shelved films like Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige’s ill-fated Star Wars entry or Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron.
Recently, the filmmaker, known for his work on The Mandalorian and his recurring voiceover role as IG-II, broke his silence on the matter during an interview with Entertainment Tonight, in which he admitted he has “a lot of projects” on his plate, adding, “I don’t want to rush this movie:”
At the moment, I’m still developing something with them. Like me, they have a lot of projects going on. I think they’re gonna push it until I finish these other projects… I’ve got about four other scripts that I’m trying to finish. My thing is, I want to take my time with that and get it right. I don’t want to rush this movie.
Taika Waititi on His ‘Star Wars’ Movie: “It’s Gonna Piss People Off”
Days later, while speaking to Variety at the premiere of his new movie Next Goal Wins (2023), Waititi offered an additional update, shedding more light on his vision for his Star Wars debut — which doesn’t sound promising. When asked to describe his film, Waititi joked, “It will be … dramatic pause… a Taika Waititi film,” before adding with a laugh, “It’s gonna piss people off.”
The Hollywood multi-hyphenate ruffled feathers with his comments about his upcoming Star Wars entry, which, admittedly, could’ve come at a better time. With Disney and Lucasfilm suffering unprecedented levels of scrutiny in recent years, it’s safe to say that Star Wars fans need a unifying, crowd-pleasing entry to bring the sci-fi series back to the big screen — not something as divisive as Waititi is letting on:
Wtf is with these people? Rian Johnson, Taika Waititi, etc
“I want half my audience to hate my films.”
“My film will piss people off.”
Bunch of narcissistic edgybois whose primary motivation is to annoy other people rather than making the best art they can.
Wtf is with these people? Rian Johnson, Taika Waititi, etc
“I want half my audience to hate my films.”
“My film will piss people off.”
Bunch of narcissistic edgybois whose primary motivation is to annoy other people rather than making the best art they can. https://t.co/X9wtiaNYg3
— The Anto Kreegyr Welcome Party (@Odrinhereboy) November 15, 2023
Understandably, some are weary of Waititi gearing up to take the director’s chair in the iconic franchise. There’s no denying that the internet has somewhat fallen out of love with Taika Waititi since the premiere of his disastrous Marvel collaboration, Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), which caught MCU fans off guard considering his first superhero outing, Thor: Ragnarok (2017), was a hit, bringing a much needed tonal shift to the titular character (played by Chris Hemsworth).
However, Love and Thunder, on the other hand, proved that there could be indeed too much of a good thing, failing to strike the right balance of drama and comedy in a story that felt extremely childish and self-indulgent — a stark contrast from the days of Avengers: Endgame (2019) and even Thor: The Dark World (2013). Waititi recently confirmed that he won’t be returning for the untitled Thor 5 and will jump ship to Disney’s other major franchise in the coming years.
Divisive Movies Won’t Fix ‘Star Wars,’ as Proven by Rian Johnson’s ‘The Last Jedi’
Waititi’s remarks are sounding alarms for some Star Wars fans, as his latest interview is eerily reminiscent of sentiments expressed by Rian Johnson. The director previously explained that The Last Jedi was his way of challenging the legacy of Star Wars, which, suffice to say, isn’t fondly remembered by fans due to its treatment of legacy characters, namely, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).
Back in 2003, long before the conception of his Star Wars movie, Johnson also offered some polarizing remarks on his approach to filmmaking, saying, “I would be worried if everybody across the board was like ‘yeah that was a good movie.’ It’s much more exciting to me when you get a group of people who are coming up to you and are really really excited about it and then there are other people who walk out just literally saying ‘That was the worst movie I’ve ever seen.’ Having those two extremes to me is the mark of the type of movie that I want to make.“
Johnson, however, has walked back his statements on making “divisive” art in recent years, taking to X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) in 2018 to clarify that he never wants “to purposefully make people hate something I’ve done, or divide audiences,” adding, “I’m saying that any art that’s worth a damn comes from a personal, passionate perspective. And that means that you will never get 100% of an audience on board with it.”
Still, the director has frequently doubled down on the defense of his Star Wars movie ever since it arrived in theaters in 2017, saying that Luke was intentionally used as a device to examine myths in Star Wars as well as in audiences’ lives and by doing that, challenges lifelong fans with their own assumptions of their hero, the Jedi Order, and even the franchise itself.
However, it’s safe to assume that most fans don’t want to be “challenged” by Star Wars entries at this point; rather, entertained. And ultimately, this kind of space is where Waititi tends to thrive. Although George Lucas created the Original Trilogy to act as an allegory for war, political systems, and even religion, Disney’s take on the beloved IP has struggled to replicate some of the same philosophy and social commentary seen in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977), which could mean it’s time for the franchise to go in a very different direction by committing to something more along the lines of a comedy.
Waititi has, and likely will continue to, create provocative films that subvert audiences’ expectations, starting with his signature dark comedy before hitting viewers with intense, haunting moments. Take Jojo Rabbit (2019), for example, which sees Waititi playing a hilariously satirized version of Adolf Hitler, cracking jokes and acting as a pseudo-imaginary friend to protagonist Jojo Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) while also exploring the nightmarish realities of living in Nazi Germany.
All the ingredients are certainly there for Waititi to create a similar story set in the galaxy far, far away, but one can only wonder if his warning that his movie will “piss people off” is more of a red flag than anything. While directors certainly shouldn’t be afraid to explore hard-hitting concepts in their work, being divisive for the sake of being divisive rarely ends well. And if there’s one thing the Star Wars fandom doesn’t need, it’s even more controversy.
Ultimately, Taika Waititi remains a competent filmmaker, and we can only hope that his upcoming Star Wars endeavor doesn’t get lost in his growing pile of half-finished scripts. Anything set in the Star Wars universe deserves the utmost attention and focus, and if Waititi can manage to bring his personal flare to the project with a refreshed and lighthearted take on the beloved IP, then maybe he can reestablish trust with disillusioned fans once and for all.
Do you think Disney needs to take a sharp 180 to salvage what’s left of Star Wars’ reputation? Is Taika Waititi the right man for the job? Let us know in the comments below!