Taika Waititi says his Star Wars film will recapture original trilogy’s fun

Movieweb reports director Taika Waititi told Variety at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival he hopes to bring "a little more of the fun from the original films" to his as-yet-undated Star Wars movie.

The project has faced hold-ups from both Waititi and Lucasfilm and has yet to settle into a release timeframe after multiple delays to its production and release. Waititi said he wants to "go back and harness a little more of the fun from the original films," adding, "The stakes were very high, and there were serious things going on, but also, there was a lot of fun to be had in those films, and so that's what I was trying to bring back." Along with on-screen roles as IG-11 and IG-12, Waititi previously directed The Mandalorian's Season 1 finale, which is regarded as one of the series' best episodes.

Star Wars has not been in theaters since 2019, when Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker grossed over $1 billion worldwide and registered a 51% Tomatometer score. After The Mandalorian and Grogu debut in theaters this May and Shawn Levy's Starfighter (starring Ryan Gosling) follows, Waititi's undisclosed movie is expected to arrive sometime after those efforts, but what kind of story he will deliver remains unclear.

Key Topics

Culture, Taika Waititi, Star Wars, Lucasfilm, The Mandalorian, Sundance