With Thor: Love and Thunder wrapped up, Taika Waititi is diving headfirst into his upcoming and yet untitled Star Wars film. Wired spoke with Waititi about a number of things, but as it does, Star Wars made its way into the conversation. Here are the few lines that he gave to Wired during the interview.
“It’s still in the ‘EXT. SPACE’ stage, but we’ve got a story. I’m really excited by it because it feels very me.”
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/taika-waititi-free-guy
In response to being asked if he is having any difficulties matching his “irreverant tone” with Star Wars, Waititi responded thusly:
“I tend to go down that little sincerity alleyway in my films. I like to fool the viewer into thinking ‘ha it’s this’ and then them going, ‘Damn it, you made me feel something!’”
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/taika-waititi-free-guy
The best example that of Taika pulling emotion out of comedy is definitely his Oscar-winning film JoJo Rabbit, which follows a Hitler Youth Child during the end of the Nazi regime in Germany. The has tons of comedy, but Waititi takes the comedy angle and uses it to feed you some incredibly emotional scenes towards the end of the film.
Some Star Wars fans may see this and think, “Ugh, comedy in Star Wars…”, but when done correctly, see all droid scenes in the OT and select scenes in the other trilogies, comedy has worked perfectly in Star Wars films. There has always been an intentional comedic sense brought to the films, mainly at the behest of George Lucas himself, so Waititi’s sensibilities will likely fit perfectly into the franchise.
