Director Taika Waititi has confirmed that the Star Wars film in development since 2020 has been shelved. Waititi, who made the statement to Inverse during the promotion of his new film Klara and the Sun, said he and screenwriter Tony McNamara are working on another project. McNamara, known for Poor Things and The Favourite, had been writing the screenplay for the Star Wars film.
The project is well and truly on ice. The 51-year-old director, whose press adviser did not want him to give details, said the project was “well and truly on ice” and that he was trying to get 4 other films off the ground, adding: “Ice ages come to an end too… Who knows?”
Waititi had said this in January. Waititi had said he was trying to bring back the sense of fun of the early films and to build a more standalone world. Kathleen Kennedy, who is preparing to step down as Lucasfilm president, had stated that the project was “still on the agenda to some extent.”
The film received mixed reviews. Adapted from the novel by Nobel Prize-winning Japanese author Kazuo Ishiguro and featuring Jenna Ortega as the android, the film met with a harsh review from Variety’s Guy Lodge. The film, which opens in the US on October 23, is being screened in Turkey as part of Filmekimi. The release date is unclear.
Why it matters
The statement confirms that the Star Wars film, in development since 2020, has effectively fallen off the studio’s schedule and adds weight to the question of how the upcoming leadership change at Lucasfilm will affect the fate of shelved projects. The gap between Kennedy’s remarks, which kept the project on the agenda to some extent as she prepared to step down, and Waititi’s latest assessment suggests that the priorities of the production company and the creative team are not aligned. Waititi’s turn to another project with McNamara, along with the four other films he is trying to bring to life, weakens the likelihood that Star Wars will thaw out anytime soon. For audiences in Turkey, the director’s current offering is Klara and the Sun, which is heading toward its US release with mixed reviews and is being screened as part of Filmekimi. The open question is whether this approach, aimed at the sense of fun of the early films and a more standalone world, will be revived under the new leadership.
Background
Star is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 2 news stories mentioning this name in the last 90 days; the most recent is dated September 13, 2026.