Over the last half-decade or so, we've gotten pretty used to what could be called Schrödinger's Star Wars movies — films that have been announced but haven't been made, and whose status has been largely left unconfirmed. James Mangold's Dawn Of The Jedi, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's New Jedi Order, a new Rian Johnson trilogy, and an original Taika Waititi joint have all come and gone and come again in recent years. But now, while in London for the premiere of his latest movie, Klara And The Sun, Taika Waititi has clarified what's going on with his trip to that galaxy far, far away. And it's not great news, folks.
Speaking to Inverse on the Klara And The Sun press tour, Waititi was asked about the current state of his Star Wars universe project, which he had, as of last update, been working on with Poor Things and The Favourite scribe Tony McNamara. "I hate to break this to you, but we're going to actually put it on ice," Waititi told Inverse, before adding that he and McNamara are now "working on a different thing together." While news of another Star Warsian project having fallen by the wayside is disappointing, the filmmaker isn't ruling out revisiting his jump to lightspeed entirely. “Ice ages do come to an end,” the Hunt For The Wilderpeople mastermind reminded his interviewer.
While Waititi Wars may not be happening anytime soon, there's no shortage of work from the New Zealander still to look forward to all the same. As of right now, Taika is still juggling a new Charlie And The Chocolate Factory movie, an adaptation of The Incal, What We Do In The Shadows' long-awaited feature follow-up, and a big-screen take on Deb Olin Unferth's satirical bestseller Barn 8, with Very Young Frankenstein and another major literary adaptation, of Percival Everett's Huckleberry Finn reimagining James, in the pipeline too. And until Taika does get his Star Wars movie, we'll always have his IG-88 — and that ain't nothin'...