On the appropriately-dated May the Fourth, Lucasfilm have formally announced their plans for a new Star Wars movie – which will be helmed by Taika Waititi. As film-fans already know, Waititi is the man behind Thor: Ragnarok and the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder) and who won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay earlier this year for his superb and satirical JoJo Rabbit. He also found time to direct the finale for the first season of The Mandalorian. It was shortly after that aired that rumours began circulating he was being courted by Lucasfilm for a Star Wars related project. Waititi suggested this was untrue without outright denying it and it appears that there was indeed a lot of talk behind the scenes…
Waititi will co-write the screenplay with another Academy Award nominee Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917, Last Night in Soho) who also received a BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film of the Year for 1917. No specific subject-matter, start date or intended release date is known at this point.
News also comes that Emmy-nominated writer Leslye Headland (Russian Doll, Bachelorette) is currently developing a separate Star Wars project, a series for Disney+ for which she will write, executive produce, and serve as showrunner. This series comes in addition to other recent Lucasfilm series in the works, including a prequel to Rogue One (itself a prequel) centred around the character of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and another featuring Ewan McGregor reprising the classic role of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The latter was on hiatus even before the recent COVID-19 situation after several dramatic changes in the writing department – but it remains a firm intent once the industry steadies itself.
