Taika Waititi Would Love to Make a Star Wars Movie

Taika Waititi keeps going from strength to strength, riding a wave of love, support and awards in the months following the release of his latest film, Jojo Rabbit.

Though his features Boy and Eagle vs. Shark had been warmly received by critics and audiences alike during the early stages of his directing career, his star really began to rise after mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, which has since spawned several spinoff TV series, arrived in 2014. The movie became an instant cult classic, and Marvel jumped on the Waititi bandwagon soon after, hiring him to direct the third film in the Thor franchise, Thor: Ragnarok. His deft touch went on to lift the God of Thunder’s new solo outing into the stratosphere.

It was no surprise, then, that Marvel decided to lock Waititi in for its sequel, Thor: Love And Thunder, due out in 2021 and set to start filming later this year. But that didn’t seem to be the end of Waititi’s Disney dalliance – reports soon started to spread that he was being eyed to helm his very own Star Wars movie, too, and in a new interview with Variety, the director wanted to set the record straight:

“I wish there was a better story, I’ll put it that way. Are there discussions about the Star Wars film? Like, yeah, I discussed with my friends in 1996 how cool Star Wars was. That’s what they’re going off.

“I think people see me hanging out with people, especially with Star Wars, and think I’m having some big discussions about it. I would f—ing love to.

“If it was right. I would want to do any kind of movie if it made sense, and if it felt not like career suicide.”

Waititi also addressed the fairly recent news that his live-action remake of Akira had been pushed back, saying that the project may have ultimately slipped through his fingers due to scheduling conflicts with Thor 4.

“The whole thing went on hold,” he said, “We had to keep pushing the dates, and it encroached on the Thor dates, which were immovable. So Akira ended up shifting two years down the track.”

He later added that by the time two years have passed he may have missed his window to direct Akira, but also said “I don’t know what I’m doing in f—ing two days” and that “I think eventually it will happen. I’m just not sure if I’ll be doing it.”

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Waititi’s next film is Next Goal Wins. The project is based on a 2014 documentary by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison, and follows Dutch-American coach Thomas Rongen as he tries to get the American Samoa national football team to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. It stars Michael Fassbender and Elisabeth Moss, and will be released in the later months of 2020.

Kirsten Howard will tell you that the Fast & Furious franchise peaked with Tokyo Drift, even if you didn’t ask.