Well, it’s taken six years to get to where we always knew we’d be, with Taika Waititi confirming his Star Wars movie has been “put on ice.” No surprise there.
Taika confirmed the news to Inverse, just ahead of the release of his latest movie, Klara and the Sun. I’ll remind you that film was also plagued by delays and is looking like a complete dud. What the Hell happened to Taika?
“It’s very iced,” he added. “I’ve got about four other movies I’m trying to do. Ice ages do come to an end. Who knows?”
Well, at least he hasn’t totally given up on it.
Taika’s slate is indeed packed with stuff that I’m unconvinced will actually happen. They include a What We Do in the Shadows sequel, a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film (who needs that???), an adaptation of Moebius and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s graphic novel The Incal, and more. There used to be a live-action Akira movie on the docket, too, but it’s dead dead dead.
Taika’s Star Wars movie was announced on Star Wars Day in 2020, as part of a big rollout of upcoming projects. It was expected to hit theaters in 2023, but nothing really moved on it before the exit of co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Tony McNamara (Poor Things) was brought in to help out, and it only seemed to make matters worse. Taika joked at one point that his movie would “piss people off”, which was an odd thing to say about a franchise that largely caters to its fans. Earlier this year, Kathleen Kennedy said the film was “somewhat alive”, and now it’s not even that.
F’real though, what happened to Taika? It’s like the poor reaction to Thor: Love & Thunder derailed everything. His last film, the dreadful soccer comedy Next Goal Wins, sat on the shelf for four years before it got dumped into theaters. Klara and the Sun was shot in 2024 and is opening this week, dragged down by brutal early reviews. If it’s as big a flop as it appears to be, it might be a very long time before Taika gets another major studio gig. And who knows? Maybe that’s for the best?
