We don’t yet know a lot about the upcoming Taika Waititi Star Wars film, but we did just get some positive news about it. Waititi and his co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns are joining Rogue Squadron director Patty Jenkins in getting back to franchises basics. How, you ask? By avoiding one of the biggest criticisms of the sequel trilogy. Fans derided the sequels, mostly The Last Jedi, for its lack of direction and failure to adhere to the basic tenets of Star Wars lore. That’s a pitfall Wilson-Cairns are already taking great strides to avoid.
Last summer the Thor: Raganarok director confirmed that he would indeed be traipsing off to the galaxy far, far away. Many initially questioned the choice based on the writer/director/actor’s comical and quirky persona. Notwithstanding, fans have come to embrace the notion of a Taika Waititi Star Wars film. His involvement with and treatment of The Mandalorian, if nothing else, certainly proved his Star Wars mettle. Wilson-Cairns, it seems, shares his dedication to honoring the essence of the franchise.
Taika Waititi Star Wars film rooted in franchise history
Wilson-Cairns recently spoke to Variety about the upcoming film, and the status of its script. She indicated that writing for the film is “coming along quite nicely,” adding:
“You have to research, study and spend a lot of time to get it right. It’s really important to honor not only your commitment to it but also to the legions of fans out there.”
That kind of commitment is a far cry from what fans, and even Star Wars actors, thought they got from The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson. Actor Sam Witwer, for example, said of Johnson that “[y]ou can’t reinvent Star Wars without knowing Star Wars first,” and Johnson just didn’t do his homework. (Witwer, of course, is the actor that breathed extraordinary new life into the character of Maul.)
That Wilson-Cairns is taking the time to research and understand the franchise of which she’s about to become a part should be very comforting to fans concerned about the franchise’s film future. If the Taika Waititi Star Wars film in any way resembles what he did with The Mandalorian, well….
We should all be in for a treat.
Source: Variety
“We read THOUSANDS of comment boards and figured out all the things we DON’T want fans to say about OUR movie. We want to take chances but NOT the chances they took on Episodes 7 – 9, which means we won’t take any chances. Whatever they did on The Mandalorian – we’ll do THAT…Just that. People liked that. So…That was good. That’s what we’ll do. Yeah. So here we go. Gonna’ get back to doing that now.” That was probably their DEEP research into the “essence of Star Wars”.