On May 4th, Star Wars dropped a real ‘bomb’…

Academy Award Winner Taika Waititi to Direct and Co-Write new Star Wars Feature Film for Theatrical Release; Oscar Nominee Krysty Wilson-Cairns to Co-Write Screenplay with Waititi

Academy Award® winner Taika Waititi, who recently won Best Adapted Screenplay for Jojo Rabbit and directed the widely-acclaimed first season finale episode of The Mandalorian on Disney+, will direct and co-write a new Star Wars feature film for theatrical release.

Joining Waititi on the screenplay will be Academy Award® nominee Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917, Last Night in Soho), who received a BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film of the Year on the three-time Oscar-winning film, 1917.

Release date for Waititi’s project has not yet been announced.

source: starwars.com

The announcement sheds no light on when in the saga’s timeline the film might take place, what characters might be involved, or any other details.

The idea of Taika Waititi making a Star Wars movie has been rolling since 2017. He discussed his potential involvement in the Star Wars franchise with The New York Times. They wrote,

In the summer, […] the directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were let go from the “Star Wars” Han Solo film. Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that the directors’ improvisational style didn’t play well with the screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan or Lucasfilm executives, who in a news release cited “different creative visions” for the split. A fan suggested on Twitter that Waititi should direct a “Star Wars” movie. “Lolz, I like to complete my films,” Waititi replied. “I’d be fired within a week.”

“That particular franchise seems really hard,” he elaborated in September. “There’s not much room for someone like me.” Through its narrow canon, the tone of “Star Wars” has always been determinedly self-serious, […]

However, after the success of ‘The Mandalorian’ series and well received final episode of season 1 directed by Waititi, The Hollywood Reporter announced in January this year, that Taika Waititi was approached to develop a Star Wars movie. It is unclear where things stand in those talks. It is also unclear whether the project is separate from the one being developed by Kevin Feige, with whom he closely worked on Ragnarok, or a separate Star Wars project. Disney and Lucasfilm, producers of the Star Wars movies, had no comment.

After winning the Oscar, Taika was asked by Variety about the Star Wars rumours,

Just by working on “The Mandalorian,” you’ve landed squarely in the future of “Star Wars” conversation. Where does that stand now?
I wish there was a better story, I’ll put it that way. Are there discussions about the “Star Wars” film? Like, yeah, I discussed with my friends in 1996 how cool “Star Wars” was. That’s what they’re going off.

You would want to do a “Star Wars” movie.
If it was right. I would want to do any kind of movie if it made sense, and if it felt not like career suicide.

Taika has been really tight lipped and played coy in a few more interviews for all this time and we can imagine how relieved he can be that he does not have to do it anymore. Well, at least when it comes to the Star Wars news.

So, as much as we are excited about it, it’s going to be a loooong wait before we find out how flexible Lucasfilm is in allowing Taika to do his thing and make his version of a Star Wars movie.