After Three Years Taika Waititi Admits He Still Has Not Finished His Star Wars Script

John F. Trent |

Sep 18, 2023

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 23: Taika Waititi attends the Thor: Love and Thunder World Premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in [Hollywood], California on June 23, 2022. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi recently admitted that he still has not finished his Star Wars script despite working on it for at least three years.

While honoring fellow director Shawn Levy at the TIFF Tribute Awards, Waititi stated, “After [Levy] has had his way with that franchise like a cruel, indiscriminate virus he’ll move onto another, and another, and another, and then eventually probably Star Wars.”

Waititi then admitted, “Unlike me I hope he manages to finish a script for that.”

Taika Waititi honors Shawn Levy at the TIFF Tribute Awards: “Shawn has resisted the comfort of sameness in career, resulting in work that is audacious in its range of genres.” https://t.co/XkWfqBFsIz pic.twitter.com/kKBOz9In2W

— Variety (@Variety) September 11, 2023

Lucasfilm announced Waititi was working on a Star Wars film back on May 4, 2020. The official website announced, “Academy Award® winner Taika Waititi, who recently won Best Adapted Screenplay for Jojo Rabbit and directed the widely-acclaimed first season finale episode of The Mandalorian on Disney+, will direct and co-write a new Star Wars feature film for theatrical release.”

The site added, “Joining Waititi on the screenplay will be Academy Award® nominee Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917, Last Night in Soho), who received a BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film of the Year on the three-time Oscar-winning film, 1917.”

There has not been a lot of movement on the film since then. Waititi did tell The New York Times in 2022, “I’m trying to write the ‘Star Wars’ idea at the moment. I’ve got to see how that goes, because once I submit it, that might determine when it gets made or if it gets made, even.”

Waititi added, “I am cool as well to take six months off and just go hang out with my kids.”

More recently he indicated the whole film was a rumor despite it being officially announced. He was asked by Deadline, “Speaking of different environments, Taika, there’s also a lot of talk about what you are working on, now it’s writing and perhaps staring in a Star Wars movie …”

Waititi responded, “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…”

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

Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy previously told Empire Magazine that the film is still happening, but Kennedy indicated the issue was the third act.

She said, “Taika is working away. He’s just, and he won’t get mad at me for saying this, slow. We’ve got a couple of acts, we need a third.”

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter at the end of May this year, Waititi did provide an update on the film and revealed he was struggling with the middle part of the film, not the third act.

He said, “I’ve got a really good idea for it. It’s just as with all films, it’s this middle part. You’re like, ‘What’s going to happen?’ And then you look at all of those films that are so great, you’re like, ‘Well, I guess they can’t meet some smuggler with an alien sidekick.’”

However, he also similarly noted it’s not a top priority, “For the most part, I would like to take a few holidays and go and follow Rita around. Just be her little tour toy boy and hang out with her and just watch her perform and get her a cup of tea backstage.”

It’s likely it’s not a top priority for Lucasfilm anymore either as the company did not make a mention of it during their most recent Star Wars Celebration.

Instead they announced three new films from directors Dave Filoni, James Mangold, and Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy.