This time last week, fans of both Taika Waititi and Star Wars were 100 percent sold on the filmmaker taking the trip to a galaxy far, far away.
After all, Thor: Ragnarok ranks as one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s finest installments, he’s an Academy Award-winning talent having scooped the Best Adapted Screenplay trophy for penning Best Picture nominee Jojo Rabbit, and he won strong notices for his previous contributions to the franchise after helming The Mandalorian‘s season 1 finale.
However, the underwhelming reception currently being afforded to Thor: Love and Thunder has significantly dampened the enthusiasm somewhat, while Star Wars supporters have become more trepidatious than ever based on the New Zealander’s recent comments regarding his in-development blockbuster.
The most recent reports have claimed that Waititi’s Lucasfilm-backed intergalactic extravaganza could begin shooting in early 2023, which would make sense when Kathleen Kennedy essentially admitted it would be the next feature film out of the gate, although that would render the proposed December 2023 release date as unrealistic to the point of unfeasible.
It’s always interesting to notice how quickly sentiment can turn, when Thor: Love and Thunder was riding a wave of near-unstoppable buzz and momentum ahead of its release, only to become the second consecutive MCU offering to split opinion down the middle after May’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Writing off a project before we even know what it is has never been a good look, though, so we’d be inclined to give Waititi the benefit of the doubt, at least for now.
