Not to state the obvious, but Taika Waititi has never given off the impression of being somebody who takes themselves all that seriously, even if he is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker with a penchant for surprisingly hard-hitting and emotional storytelling.
Of course, the quirky demeanor is a key part of his persona, but Star Wars supporters would much rather find out whether his movie is actually happening or not instead of listening to him crack jokes about it. The Thor: Ragnarok and Love and Thunder director has always remained evasive, but Kathleen Kennedy has been adamant it’s happening eventually, but we’re no further forward when it comes to a production or release schedule.
When presenting friend and colleague Shawn Levy with an award at the Toronto Film Festival – fittingly ironic when he too has a Star Wars blockbuster lodged in development hell – Waititi couldn’t help but take a shot at his own stalled ventures to crack the story for his venture into a galaxy far, far away, where he quipped “unlike me, let’s hope he manages to finish a script for that” when mentioning Levy’s own cosmic caper.
It would be an understatement to say there’s a lot of longtime franchise fans who’d be nothing less than thrilled were Waititi’s feature to become the latest in a long line of Star Wars stories to disappear into the ether never to be seen or heard from ever again, but we’ll just have to wait and see if that turns out to be the case.