Did anyone really expect Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi to make a Star Wars movie that’s a carbon-copy of every other Star Wars movie that’s come before it? The man couldn’t make anything “normal” if he tried. I say this with love. He’s exactly what Star Wars storytelling needs right now, and he’s already promised to deliver something truly special.
Deadline recently reported Waititi’s comments from an interview where he discussed the movie in more detail. Still in early stages of development, he couldn’t give too much concrete information. But he did shed more light on what he envisions for the project — including what he doesn’t want it to be.
"“Look, I think for the Star Wars universe to expand, it has to expand. I don’t think that I’m any use in the Star Wars universe making a film where everyone’s like, ‘Oh great, well that’s the blueprints to the Millennium Falcon, ah that’s Chewbacca’s grandmother.’ That all stands alone… I would like to take something new and create some new characters and just expand the world, otherwise it feels like it’s a very small story.”"
It’s probably a good thing we’re not getting a repaint of a Star Wars film or story that’s been done before or another narrative about characters we’ve all seen plenty of times. There’s nothing wrong with expanding the stories of popular characters — Dave Filoni’s upcoming Tales of the Jedi anthology series, for example, is expected to reinforce familiar Star Wars themes using two very familiar characters at different points in their lives. These types of stories are great. But not every Star Wars story has to be like those.
If Star Wars is going to continue telling stories — which it most certainly will for decades to come — it has to use some of its bandwidth to break away from the familiar and venture into the unexplored. New eras, new characters, new ideas. The core themes of Star Wars will always be there, that’s what makes a Star War a Star War. But they’ll be embedded into different narratives told from different points of view. That’s the future of the franchise, and anyone who isn’t into that can simply go back and re-watch the same stories they’ve already gotten as many times as they want.
Waititi is still working on developing the story of his film, so it will probably be some time before we see another Star Wars movie. And that’s OK. Some fans say they want the same stories told over and over again, but they end up complaining about that when it happens. You can’t please everyone. And that’s certainly not what this director is trying to do — good for him.
In the meantime, there’s plenty of Star Wars to go around — everything from new shows to book, comics, and more. Star Wars movies aren’t over. They’re just taking things slow.
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