Kathleen Kennedy Admits Still No Progress Made On Taika Waititi’s Star Wars Film: “Taika Is On Taika Time”
In an update that will likely be cause for most moviegoers to breathe a sigh of relief, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy says that though she still has her best hopes that the project will someday come to fruition, development on Taika Waititi’s Star Wars film is currently at a complete standstill.
The embattled studio head provided this progress report while speaking to ScreenRant’s Ash Crossan during the 2025 Star Wars Celebration event, as currently being held in Chiba, Japan.
Asked by Crossan specifically about the status of Waititi’s outing in George Lucas’ sandbox, Kennedy admitted that due to the director’s schedule, said film has yet to see even an iota of movement.
“Taika is on Taika time,” said the Lucasfilm President. “I’ve just continually said to him, look, when you feel that you’re ready and you can really devote the time, we’re going to do it.”
“We’ll be waiting,” she added. “I’m just hoping we get there. That will be a great Star Wars movie.”
First announced in celebration of Star Wars Day 2020 (May 4th) and and then set to be co-written by 1917 and Last Night in Soho co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns, not only did it take roughly three years for fans to receive an update regarding the production status of Waititi’s film, but it and every report since has indicated that the film has been deftly placed on the director’s back burner.
“I’ve got a really good idea for it,” Waititi told The Hollywood Reporter when asked for insight into the film’s status. “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.'”
RELATED: ‘Thor: Love And Thunder’ Director Taika Waititi Says His Star Wars Film “Is Gonna Piss People Off”
Pressed for more info by Variety later that November, the Thor: Love and Thunder director cheekily declared, “It will be…dramatic pause…a Taika Waititi film. It’s gonna piss people off.”
Likewise, asked earlier this March by Deadline‘s Mike Fleming Jr. as to the status of Lucasfilm’s full range of currently-in-production Star Wars projects, Kennedy noted that when it came to this specific film, “Well, I keep waiting for Taika [Waititi], and he is working with another writer now.”
“He’s so busy,” she added. “I love him. I think if we ever do get a script from Taika, it’s going to be fantastic. I already saw a first act that I loved, but tying him down, it’s tricky.”
Notably, Kennedy did not provide any details on as to Taika’s script-less relay of his first act, nor which specific writer has since replaced Wilson-Cairns.
All in all, while Star Wars fans aren’t out of the woods completely until his film is officially cancelled – and despite how one might feel about the current state of the galaxy far, far away, things can always get far, far worse.
To this end, these updates, or lack thereof, can at least be taken with a small sigh of relief, as the more days pass without any progress, the more likely it is that the franchise will avoid being subjected to a full serving of Waititi’s flippant and exhausting insistence on ‘subverting audience expectations’.
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