Taika Waititi's mystery Star Wars project will be the next franchise film
Oh, and Rian Johnson's Star Wars offering has been "backburnered"
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has very slyly revealed the roadmap for the next few Star Wars features in an interview with Vanity Fair. First up: Taika Waititi’s mysterious film.
The details of the movie remain locked away, but 1917 screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns is still working with Waititi on the script. Within the Star Wars universe, Waititi directed an episode of The Mandalorian.
Kennedy also shares that Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron will most likely follow-up Waititi’s endeavor. As for Rian Johnson’s slate of franchise films, those have been “backburnered” due to the director’s preoccupation with Knives Out 2, as well as the overall deal he signed with Netflix. Johnson previously directed The Last Jedi in 2017, prior to the smash success of Knives Out.
The latest Star Wars flick was 2019's The Rise Of Skywalker, which capped off another trilogy for the film franchise. Meanwhile, a lot of energy’s been channeled toward related series, including The Mandalorian, The Book Of Boba Fett, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Kennedy hints that the future of the sci-fi saga may look a little different going forward, possibly stepping away from the old format.
“I hesitate to use the word trilogies anymore because Star Wars is much more about persistent storytelling,” Kennedy says. Persistent is right, with barely any breathing room offered between the combination of films and off-shoot series, including the newly announced Andor from Diego Luna and Ahsoka with Rosario Dawson.
The untitled Star Wars feature is just one pebble on a mountain of work Waititi has accumulated. Most recently, he starred as the infamous and queer Blackbeard in the HBO series Our Flag Means Death.
Looking ahead, he’s got Flash Gordon, Akira, The Incal, Next Goal Wins, and the Time Bandits series, just to name a few projects. Also who can forget that the director helmed the forthcoming Thor: Love And Thunder, starring Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, and Chris Hemsworth, which arrives this summer.