Yesterday a reliable journalist and insider shared a positive update on the untitled Star Wars movie currently being developed by Thor: Love and Thunder’s Taika Waititi.
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It seems to be a common unfounded rumour that makes its way around online every few months, especially within the last year or so, that Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie has been cancelled. Typically the rumour originates from outlets or individuals that don’t have great track records, hence why I never cover those reports or tweets. However what this usually prompts is a reputable source of information to respond and after two or three weeks of again, unfounded rumours of a cancellation, Jeff Sneider of The Hot Mic podcast has given a positive update on the status of Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie.
During the latest episode of his podcast, which he co-hosts with John Rocha, the duo were asked if fans could expect developments on the untitled Star Wars movie which will be led by Daisy Ridley and is being written by Steven Knight. Sneider unfortunately did not have an update in regards to that movie, mentioning that he hasn’t spoke with that source in a while and that he should reach out for an update. However this question prompted Sneider to ever briefly touch on a Star Wars film that he did get an update on, the Taika Waititi flick. Sneider simply shared that the Waititi project is one he has been checking up on and shared that Lucasfilm are expecting a draft and that the film most certainly is not “dead.”
“Taika’s movie. I definitely checked in on that and again, a draft is expected and it is not dead.” – Jeff Sneider via The Hot Mic
The untitled Taika Waititi movie was first announced in May of 2020, with Waititi revealed to be directing the film as well as co-writing the flick with Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917). In May of 2022, following the indefinite delay of Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, a film that was due to be directed by Wonder Woman’s Patty Jenkins and was due to release in December 2023, Lucasfilm president, Kathleen Kennedy, claimed that Taika Waititi’s untitled film would take it’s place. Waititi responded to the Kennedy revelation less than a month later, Waititi revealed that he was still “coming up with ideas” and “story-lining” the project, making it unlikely that the film would make a late 2023 release and the following month revealed that he was yet to submit his script, and that once submitted, then it would be determined if and when it gets made.
This year we’ve had various updates on the Waititi project, with the first coming from Variety in March who shared that Waititi would star in his untitled Star Wars movie and that the role would be one of prominence, with the outlet comparing the size of the role to his role of Adolf Hitler in his 2019 film, Jojo Rabbit. In April, Kathleen Kennedy reaffirmed Waititi was still writing his Star Wars script, but seemingly now doing so alone, as Waititi did not want to bring others into the process, with Kennedy claiming that the filmmaker was a slow writer and that the script simply needed a third act. In May of this year, Waititi himself confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that he was still writing his Star Wars movie and believed it’s a really good idea, but shared that he was struggling to crack the middle part of the script and joked that he simply couldn’t allow his heroes to meet a “smuggler with an alien sidekick.”
Waititi was unable to work on his Star Wars script for close to five months due to the Writers Guild of America strike, which began on May 2nd and concluded on September 27th. Hopefully within that time the Hunter for the Wilderpeople filmmaker was able to think of ways to solve the issues with the script that he had been having, and now with the strike over, he can put pen to paper and write out those ideas and deliver an exciting draft to Lucasfilm sometime soon.
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