Taika Waititi to write and direct new Star Wars film
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Taika Waititi to write and direct new Star Wars film

New Zealand-born filmmaker who won an Oscar for Jojo Rabbit was announced as heading the next epic on Star Wars Day

Taika Waititi
(Gage Skidmore/Wikipedia)
Taika Waititi (Gage Skidmore/Wikipedia)

Taika Waititi will write and direct a new Star Wars film, it has been announced.

The Jojo Rabbit director, who won an Oscar for adapting the screenplay of the anti-hate satire, will pen the script with 1917 co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns.

Waititi, whose mother is Jewish, often goes by his mother’s surname, Cohen. He also directed Thor: Ragnarok, is no stranger to a galaxy far, far away and recently directed the final episode of the first series of The Mandalorian on streaming service Disney+.

The news was announced on May 4, known to fans as Star Wars Day because of its similarity to the popular saying “May the force be with you”.

It was also announced that Russian Doll showrunner Leslye Headland is developing a new untitled Star Wars series for Disney+.

She will write, executive produce, and serve as showrunner for the series, which will join the catalogue of Star Wars spin-off on the platform, including The Mandalorian, another based on Cassian Andor’s life prior to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and another following the adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi between Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: A New Hope.

Release dates for both projects have not yet been announced.

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