Star Wars: Taika Waititi Offers Update on Writing New Film

By Patrick Cavanaugh

In the years since Lucasfilm announced that Taika Waititi would be developing a Star Wars movie, there have been few updates about what the project would explore or when it would potentially land in theaters, with Waititi himself recently confirming that his story is in a good place, but he's still fine-tuning the middle of the adventure. Waititi is developing the script with writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns, with his comments leaving it unclear if he specifically is struggling with the middle of the conceptual journey of the characters or if it's a more specific challenge with the second act of the script itself.

"I've got a really good idea for it," Waititi shared with The Hollywood Reporter. "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.'"

It's easy to see why Waititi could be struggling with the story, not due to a lack of creative talent, but as he's been immensely busy over the last few years, as reports emerge every few months that he's attached to a new project. Due to the writers' strike, both Waititi and Wilson-Cairns have halted any significant work on the script, causing further delays on the project. At Star Wars Celebration this past April, Lucasfilm announced three new films that would be moving forward, though didn't make any updates on Waititi's film during its official presentation.

Waititi's remarks echo those that Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy made behind the scenes at Celebration, as she similarly noted that the script was taking a bit longer than expected.

"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," Kennedy revealed to Empire Magazine. 

Kennedy's comments now seem to reflect that Waititi needed to finish three total acts as opposed to the final act that creatives typically develop in a three-act structure. Despite the writers' strike understandably preventing official work from happening on the script, it's possible it could afford Waititi and Wilson-Cairns the break from the project necessary to crack the middle of the story and finish the script when the strike concludes.

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Stay tuned for updates on Taika Waititi's Star Wars movie.

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