Taika Waititi Responds To Recent Star Wars Report: “That Rumor’s About Three Years Old”

Taika Waititi on the set of THE MANDALORIAN

Director Taika Waititi recently responded to a recent report claiming that he will not only be directing an upcoming Star Wars film, but will also be potentially starring in it.

Director Taika Waititi on the set of Marvel Studios’ THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER. Photo by Jasin Boland. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

This report from Variety, was anything but new, it primarily regurgitated well-established information and attempted to frame it as new.

Nevertheless, Adam B. Vary at Variety wrote about Waititi’s Star Wars film, “Filmmaker Taika Waititi continues to work on his possible Star Wars feature, and he would most likely have a part in it as well, similar in prominence to his standout role as an imaginary Adolf Hitler in his Oscar-winning 2019 feature Jojo Rabbit.”

Taika Waititi is IG-11 in the Disney+ series THE MANDALORIAN.

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As noted above, this is anything, but new information. Lucasfilm announced on their official StarWars.com website back in May 2020 that Waititi was tapped to “direct and co-write a new Star Wars feature film for theatrical release.”

This news came after Waititi starred in The Mandalorian as IG-11 and directed a number of episodes of the show’s first season.

Taika Waititi as Korg in Marvel Studios’ THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

Waititi responded to this new report in an interview with Deadline telling the outlet, “Yeah, that rumor’s about three years old. All I’ll say is God forbid I make a Star Wars film about people sitting on mountains playing flutes…”

Deadline’s Dominic Patten then posited, “Well, they kind of went there with the last few Stars Wars movies with Luke Skywalker.” Waititi responded, “Okay, then I won’t do that, for sure.”

Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi (2017), Lucasfilm

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It’s interesting that Waititi claims the rumors about him filming and possibly starring in a Star Wars film are rumors going back three years. That time frame coincides with the official announcement from StarWars.com, meaning one would think it was more than a rumor, and that the film was actually in development at least in some shape or form.

However, given Waititi’s response to this recent report from Variety, it appears the film might not actually be in the cards at all anymore, and might actually be following in the wake of Rian Johnson’s announced trilogy, which has gone absolutely nowhere and for all intents and purposes is dead in the water.

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 20: (L-R) President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige, Director Taika Waititi and Natalie Portman of Marvel Studios’ ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ at the San Diego Comic-Con International 2019 Marvel Studios Panel in Hall H on July 20, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

Waititi’s comments about his potential Star Wars film come in the wake of Disney CEO Bob Iger discussing The Walt Disney Company’s new strategies at a Morgan Stanley conference.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Iger said, “I’m really pleased that the support that I’m getting from the content creators of the company is significant and real, and it comes in the form of reducing the expense per content, whether it’s a TV series or a film, where costs have just skyrocketed in a huge way and not a supportable way in my opinion. They all agree to that.”

He went on to reveal he would be also be reducing the amount of TV shows and films the company makes explaining the creators understand “how much volume we need, reducing how much we make. So it’s how much we spend on what we make and how much we make.”

Kevin Feige, Alan Bergman and Bob Iger attend the Ant-Man and The Wasp Quantumania World Premiere at the Regency Village Theatre on Monday, February 6, 2023 in Westwood, CA.

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He reiterated he planned to reduce the amount of content they are producing while also noting they will return to an old way of doing business and licensing their content to other parties, “And as we look to reduce the content that we’re creating for our own platforms, there probably are opportunities to license to third parties.”

He explained, “For a while that was verboten or something we couldn’t possibly do, because we were so favoring our own streaming platforms. But if we get to a point where we need less content for those platforms, and we still have the capability of producing that content, why not use it to grow revenue? And that’s what we would likely do.”

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 28: (L-R) The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger, Showrunner/Executive Producer Jon Favreau, Pedro Pascal and Alan Bergman, Chairman of Disney Studios Content attends the Mandalorian special launch event at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on February 28, 2023. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

Speaking specifically to Star Wars, Iger intimated the company will be focused on making a quality film, “Star Wars, we made three what we called saga films, which is obviously the successors to George Lucas’ first six. They did very well at the box office — tremendously well as a matter of fact. We’ve made two so-called stand-alones in Rogue One and SoloRogue One did quite well, Solo was a little disappointing to us.”

“It gave us pause just to think maybe the cadence was a little too aggressive. And so we decided to pull back a bit. We still are developing Star Wars films. We’re going to make sure that when we make one, that it’s the right one, so we are being very careful there,” he added.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 29: Bob Iger (L) and Steven Spielberg attend the New York premiere of West Side Story on November 29, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for 20th Century Studios)

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He made a point to highlight quality saying, “You know, there’s so much consumer choice right now, and it comes back to, What is differentiated? That’s one thing obviously we have talked about, is those brands: Star Wars, Marvel and Disney and Pixar, for instance. But quality is also a differentiator.”

Pointing to HBO, he elaborated, “I think HBO proved that well, you know, in their halcyon days when high-quality programming made a big difference, and not volume. And because the streaming platforms require so much volume, one has to question whether that’s the right direction to go, or if you can be more curated, more — I used the word ‘judicious’ a few times — but I guess, more picky about what you’re making, and to concentrate on quality and not volume.”

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 28: (L-R) The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger, Showrunner/Executive Producer Jon Favreau, Giancarlo Esposito, Amy Sedaris, Pedro Pascal, Emily Swallow, Katee Sackhoff, Executive Producer Rick Famuyiwa, Carl Weathers, Executive Producer Dave Filoni and Alan Bergman, Chairman of Disney Studios Content attend the Mandalorian special launch event at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on February 28, 2023. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

What do you make of Waititi’s comments and the future of his previously announced Star Wars film?

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