Taika Waititi to Direct & Co-Write New STAR WARS Film

Here's hoping he doesn't initiate self-destruct during production.

To help celebrate May the Fourth Be With You, Lucasfilm has announced that popular New Zealand actor and filmmaker Taika Waititi will direct and co-write a new Star Wars feature film planned for theatrical release.

Waititi, 44, recently served as the voice of the bounty-hunting droid IG-11 in the Disney+ Star Wars series The Mandalorian, and also directed the Season One finale, "Chapter 8: Redemption".  His films include the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe film Thor: Love & Thunder, Thor: Ragnarok, Jojo Rabbit, and the original What We Do in the Shadows, which he co-directed with Jemaine Clement.

His acting roles include the Marvel Comics character Korg in Avengers: Endgame and Thor: Ragnarok, Adolf Hitler in Jojo Rabbit, Thomas Kalmaku in Green Lantern, and Viago in both the What We Do in the Shadows film and FX TV series. 

Working with Waititi on the screenplay will be Academy Award nominee Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who received a BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film of the Year on the three-time Oscar-winning film, 1917.  She was also a staff writer on the Showtime TV series Penny Dreadful.

In other Star Wars news, it was announced that Emmy-nominated writer Leslye Headland (Russian Doll, Bachelorette) is developing a new untitled Star Wars series for Disney+. Headland will write, executive produce, and serve as showrunner for the series, which will join The Mandalorian and two other previously announced series.  One will be based on Cassian Andor’s life prior to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, while the other will follow the adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi between Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and the original 1977 Star Wars film.

No release dates for either project were announced.