In her recent interview with Deadline discussing her future at Lucasfilm, Kathy Kennedy was asked about the status of a number of Star Wars projects that are in the works, such as the films from Simon Kinberg, Shawn Levy, and James Mangold.
When she was asked about any other projects the interviewer had forgotten to ask about, she brought up one in particular: the movie that is being developed by Taika Waititi.
“Well, I keep waiting for Taika,” she shared, “and he is working with another writer now. He’s so busy. I love him. I think if we ever do get a script from Taika, it’s going to be fantastic. I already saw a first act that I loved, but tying him down, it’s tricky.”
At that point the interviewer jumped in to express admiration for Thor: Ragnarok, saying that it’s what you want from a movie theater experience. “It’s so true,” Kennedy agreed. “And that’s exactly the tone we’re always looking for with filmmakers who can pull that off. It’s not like they’re a dime a dozen. You’re really trying to find the diamond in the rough and he’s one of them.”
It’s very interesting that this movie is the one Kennedy brought up, unprompted, when asked about other things in the works. It’s been years since the movie from Taika Waititi was first announced, and that has led many to question whether it would ever get done or if it had slowly fizzled out. And while we still don’t know whether it will ever really get made, it’s clear that it is prominent in Kennedy’s mind when she’s thinking about the future of Star Wars, and it’s primarily because of the respect she has for Waititi.
Right before talking about this movie Kennedy spoke about James Mangold’s Star Wars movie, and she shared that it’s been delayed because of his work on other stuff. Then she added, “You have to accommodate top talent to a certain extent. And quality is so important with what it is we’re trying to do. I like to wait for people that I think are passionate and really good to step into Star Wars.”
Her point, of course, is to stress patience. Earlier in the interview she mentioned that in the streaming age the top talent gets busy, and you have to wait – especially Star Wars, where making a movie is a two-to-three year commitment that requires mostly undivided attention. Working with filmmakers like Mangold and Waititi are slower processes because they’re just so busy.
But it sounds like Waititi’s movie is still very much in the works, and he’s still at work writing it, and Kennedy still expects that to get done. It just requires patience – something the internet was never built to accomodate much of.
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