Taika Waititi Proves He's A Big 'Akira' Fanboy

Hollywood has a long and rather complicated history with Akira. The series stands as one of Japan's most beloved to this day, but U.S. studios have yet to find a way to bring Katsuhiro Otomo's story to life. Recently, reports surfaced that Taika Waititi is being eyed to helm the live-action adaptation, but fans shouldn't get upset yet.

After all, the New Zealander just proved how big of a fan he is when it comes to Akira.

During a recent interview with io9, Waititi sat down to talk about his next release with Thor: Ragnarok. It was there the director also chatted about Akira, and Waititi revealed he still remembers when he watched the anime feature in films more than a decade ago.

"My mom took me to see Akira in the cinema in 1989, or whenever it came out in New Zealand, and it was a huge turning point in my life for what I imagined animation to be and realizing what it could be," Waititi said.

"It's stuck with me this whole time and I feel, visually, the film was such an amazing thing."

Earlier this year, Deadline broke news that Warner Bros. is eyeing Waititi to direct its take on Akira. The site said the film would focus on a dystopian city known as 'New Manhattan' circa 2019 as a biker gang tries to save its leader's friend from a covert government experiment.

As you may have guessed, fans of the Akira series did not take too well to the idea of New Manhattan; Many accused said the film would lean into whitewashing should it erase the existence of Neo-Tokyo from Otomo's story, but Waititi eased fears recently when he said he wouldn't want to erase the film's cultural roots.

"Yeah. actually Asian teenagers would be the way to do it for me and probably no, not, like no name, I mean sort of unfound, untapped talent," Waititi told IGN when asked about his possible vision for the film.

So far, there is no official word on whether Waititi will be part of Akira or not. If Hollywood wants to do good by anime and general fans alike, it will need a director whose bold enough to reimagine Otomo's vision whilst keeping things grounded. If Thor: Ragnarok hits high at the box office once its premieres, then Warner Bros. may be willing to take the plunge with Waititi if the director is game.