Star Wars: Taika Waititi Says His Movie Will “Piss People Off”

Over the last few years, Lucasfilm has largely focused on its television output. After mixed reviews for Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, the Kathleen Kennedy-led outfit opted to pause most films in development in favor of projects they could release on Disney+. Now that development is beginning to pick back up of the studio’s film slate, one of the filmmakers developing a picture is Taika Waititi, the Oscar-winning director behind Jojo Rabbit and Thor: Love and Thunder. According to Waititi, some Star Wars fans may get upset with him over his movie.

“It will be … dramatic pause… a Taika Waititi film,” the filmmaker told Variety at the premiere of Searchlight’s Next Goal Wins. “It’s gonna piss people off.”

Waititi’s untitled Star Wars film is one of the many long-gestating projects at Lucasfilm, though it’s still in development unlike the project once rumored to be produced by Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige.

“I’ve got a really good idea for it,” Waititi told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes began. “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.’”

Kennedy confirmed earlier this year Waititi’s film was still in production before it was slowed by the Writers Guild of America strike. Kennedy said to Empire Magazine, “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.”

The filmmaker previously said he’s going to let the movie breath on its own, refusing to rush the writing process of the film.

“I saw on Twitter, someone’s like: I’d actually really love to see a movie about Chewbacca’s grandmother. And I was like, I shouldn’t have said that because this is awesome,” Waititi explained in an interview with Rolling Stone. “But I just feel like for me, I’m never gonna please the fans. You know, I don’t want to mess with something that’s so treasured. Also, you feel like you’ve got to do a lot of research…and I don’t have any time. [Laughs] I mean, there’s thousands of books that have been written, these volumes of books about Star Wars with all those characters. I just don’t have time to get through them.”

Waititi continued, “So I can’t say like, you know, confidently, I’d be able to do something that’s like very close to what everyone knows. I’m not promising that I’m not going to do anything like that. I’m just saying: It’d be easier for me to not do that.” 

The unnamed movie has yet to set a release date.