Taika Waititi’s journey to a galaxy far, far away just got a little farther, unfortunately.
The New Zealand director has been making waves in Hollywood since the tremendous success of his 2017 movie, Thor: Ragnarok, which became the highest grossing solo film for the Asgardian superhero to that point. Since then, the actor, writer, and director has found himself up to his eyeballs in projects, be it directing the season one finale of The Mandalorian, starring in Pixar’s Lightyear, or directing the next big MCU hit, Thor: Love and Thunder.
But the MCU isn’t the only franchise eager for Waititi’s golden touch. Fans of Star Wars were over the moon — better yet, Death Star — upon learning the talented director would spearhead the next big Star Wars movie, per Lucasfilm’s 2020 announcement.
The project will reportedly expand the Star Wars universe beyond the characters and storylines we’ve come to know. However, that’s about as much as Waititi was willing to say when asked about the project by Stephen Colbert on the The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Moreover, it looks like the movie will have to wait until Waititi’s current projects are completed before he can give it his full attention, proving that even the most successful visionaries work with the same 24 hours as us mere mortals.
When will the new Star Wars movie come out?
Waititi’s movie isn’t the only Star Wars movie in the pipeline. Patty Jenkins, the director of Wonder Woman, is bringing Rogue Squadron to the big screen as well — the franchise’s first stand-alone film since the conclusion of the Skywalker saga. The movie is expected to release around Christmas 2023, and in an interview with Vanity Fair, Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm, implied Rogue Squadron would release after Waititi’s movie. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.
In a 2022 interview with The Wrap, Waititi was asked if he was working on the project yet. His response caused many a moan.
Not this year. I’m going to be in New Zealand from August until the end of the year with Our Flag Means Death and Time Bandits and during that time I will still be writing. I’m still trying to figure out what the story is.
Based on his response, Waititi’s Star Wars is not likely to see the light of day until 2024, as much of 2023 will likely be spent plotting and filming the movie. In the meantime, fans can hold themselves over with Disney Plus’ new shows, Andor and Ahsoka, both of which will premiere in 2022 and 2023.
