Taika Waititi’s Star Wars Movie Won’t Film This Year

On May 4, 2020, Lucasfilm announced that Taika Waititi would co-write (with “1917” and “Last Night in Soho” scribe Krysty Wilson-Cairns) and direct a new, theatrically released “Star Wars” film. Since then, not much has been revealed. But when TheWrap sat down with him to talk about his upcoming superhero sequel “Thor: Love and Thunder,” we had to ask him about the status of the project and how it is coming along.

Some had suggested that filming on Waititi’s movie would begin later this year, since Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy had suggested his movie was further along than Patty Jenkins’ “Rogue Squadron” (which Disney still has penciled in for December 2023). If Disney is still trying to fill a slot next Christmas with a “Star Wars” project, it would probably fall to Waititi’s still-unnamed project. As it turns out, not so much.

“Not this year,” Waititi said when we asked if he’d begin working on the project soon. He explained: “I’m going to be in New Zealand from August until the end of the year with ‘Our Flag Means Death’ and ‘Time Bandits’ and during that time I will still be writing. I’m still trying to figure out what the story is.”

If Waititi’s movie isn’t going to be ready in time for next Christmas and Jenkins’ movie is being “pushed off to the side for the moment” (in Kennedy’s words), then what will the next “Star Wars” movie even be? And when will it be? Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is working on a “Star Wars” project and director JD Dillard, whose World War II movie “Devotion” opens later this year, has been rumored to be working on a project, but those seem even further off than either Jenkins or Waititi’s movies.

At the very least there’ll be plenty of “Star Wars” on the small screen, with “Andor” coming in August and “The Mandalorian’s” third season next year, along with projects like “Ahsoka” and “The Acolyte” coming soon .

Waititi’s “Thor: Love and Thunder” opens on July 8.